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* It occurs with Rukia in ''[[Bleach]]'' (although somewhat justified since the forces of Soul Society are easily comparable to [[The Men in Black]], right down to the [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]).
** Later in the series {{spoiler|[[The Rival|Renji]]}} does the same. This also works in reverse, since characters who leave again are [[Ret-Gone|forgotten by anyone]] without sufficient power to resist the effect.
* ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]!'' spends a small [[Story Arc]] on this, but eventually goes the "magic up the papers" route.
** In the manga, she feels sorry for the teacher who is trying so hard to find her student registration. {{spoiler|Being Belldandy, she completely misses the fact that he's trying to out her, suspecting that she's a plant by a rival professor to lure students away from his lectures.}} When he collapses from exhaustion in the middle of flipping through the ''paper'' school records a ''second'' time, Belldandy tucks him in and uses her magic to create the paperwork he's trying so hard to find, thinking that it will make him happy. Fortunately for Belldandy, the professor's reaction is never shown.
* Sousuke in ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'' infiltrates a Japanese high school with a forged identity provided by Mithril, under orders not to reveal his identity as a special ops sergeant or his objectives. Bureaucratically speaking, he pulls the infiltration off without a hitch as no-one seems to raise questions about his papers, prior education, tax status, social security number, etc ([[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|though the huge "donations" from Mithril to the school may have helped with that]]).[[Fish Out of Water|Practically]]... [[Hilarity Ensues|less so]].
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* How Himari from ''[[Omamori Himari]]'' became a [[New Transfer Student]].
* Averted at the start of ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'': Shana fits in by borrowing the identity of Hirai Yukari -- a Torch who had gradually [[Ret-Gone|ceased to have existed]] -- the moment she finally vanishes. All memories and records instantly change to accommodate Shana's appearance (Hirai's family had been Torches themselves and already disappeared), though everyone is still surprised by "Hirai's" [[Tsundere|radical shift in personality]].
* ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' in its various forms has this in... er, various forms. The original series seems to have the least amount, although the girls do seem to wander into town every so often with little comment. The manga has Mihoshi getting a driver's license (partly after using her high-tech blaster right in front of a cop), and Ryoko tries her hand at it too. The TV series has Kiyone and Mihoshi renting an apartment and working part-time jobs often. And no-one really seems to mind all the aliens hanging around. And think about Katsuhito in the TV series (in the OAV he landed long enough ago to have avoided modern recordkeeping).
** The third OAV reveals that "Yosho" has ties to the government, possibly going all the way up to the Emperor. In fact, given the relationship between Earth (Japan) and Jurai, it's pretty easy for aliens to establish any long-term identities they like.
* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise has a ton of these.
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** ''Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart'': Kujou Hikari.
** ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'': Kiryuu Michiru and Kiryuu Kaoru. {{spoiler|They, like Kiriya, disappear, and no [[Muggles]] ever remember they existed... until they come back.}}
** ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Yes! Precure 5]]'': Cocoda Kouji/Coco, who's a teacher, not a student, and actually a teenager passing for an adult; Natsu/Nuts, although he has nothing to do with the school system and runs a jewelry store.
** ''Yes! Precure 5GoGo'': Mimino Kurumi and Amai Shirou.
** ''[[Fresh Pretty Cure]]'': Higashi Setsuna.
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* [[Sonic X]] averts this by the government eventually taking care of creating real paperwork for Sonic & co. Then again, Sonic never was good at keeping a low profile.
* Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara from ''[[Detective Conan]]'' are actually [[Teen Genius|teen geniuses]] Shinichi Kudo and Shiho Miyano shrunk by the local [[Fountain of Youth]] to the appearance of 6-year-olds. Yet, not only do they have assumed names, they use those identities to attend public schools, and given the [[Detective Comedy|show's nature]], haven't even had their legal identities suspected by the police officers they met oh-so-frequently...
* An aversion to this trope is speculated by fans to be the reason that Ed and Al's mother and father never officially married in the manga and second anime version of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', making both Ed and Al [[Heroic Bastard|Heroic Bastards]]. {{spoiler|Hohenheim is a living, immortal philosopher's stone who is centuries old and probably has no official records, and so Ed and Al had their mother's surname to avoid being associated with him and tracked down by Father, who would use them in his plans}}.
** The trope is averted in the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|first anime]], meanwhile, {{spoiler|as Hohenheim there was a [[Body Surf|Body Surfer]] and probably 'inherited' all the relevant paperwork from the person whose body he took.}}
* Many of the immortals of ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano!]]'' avoid this issue by living in the [[The Mafia|criminal underworld]], which for the 1711 generation is probably also helpful in avoiding Szilard's [[You Will Be Assimilated|attention]].
* Rizel Iwaki of ''[[Rizelmine]]'' pulls off the [[Robot Girl]] variant of this, although it's justified as the government is fully aware of her and uses secret funding and other shady measures to support her.
* In ''[[Yumeria]]'', Mone appears in Tomokazu's bed one morning, and is in school a few days later. Fortunately, his [[Lolicon|teacher]] is very accepting of the situation, and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] Tomokazu's incredulity:
{{quote| ''You look like an anime fan who's unable to accept this ridiculous premise.''}}
* ''[[Girls Bravo (Manga)|Girls Bravo]]'': Miharu and other [[Human Alien]] girls enter the school system without any difficulty.
* In the TV series of ''[[Black Rock Shooter]]'', {{spoiler|Yuu is introduced}} as a [[New Transfer Student]] despite being {{spoiler|the same age as she was when she entered the Otherworld and replaced Strength, 10 years ago.}} There isn't even a handwave.
 
== Comics ==
* [[Subverted Trope]] in ''[[Ultimate Spider -Man]]'' when {{spoiler|Gwen Stacy comes back to life}} and a letter from Iron Man to the Vice Principal doesn't immediately clear things up.
* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', immortal Hob Gadling avoids suspicion by faking his death once in awhile and leaving the money to a "relative" with the same name. It still doesn't solve the problem of government records, though, in the modern era.
** Averted with the long-lived caveman who dies in a modern city - when his modern-day son goes through his father's possessions for the funeral, he finds paperwork for multiple alternate identities and funds to take advantage of them.
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== Fan Fiction ==
* Michikyuu Kanae, resident slider in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', never had any trouble with having an identity in each world she arrived. [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] later it's when it's revealed that {{spoiler|she [[Body Surf|slides only mentally]], replacing or [[Fridge Horror|overwriting the local Kanae with herself]] and thus never needing to have an identity -- she always already has one}}. She doesn't realize it.
 
 
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* [[Subverted Trope]] in ''The Associate'': Laurel Ayres' creation that allows her to pass off her ideas becomes so prominent and is [[Invented Individual|so realistic]] that she is accused of murdering him when she fakes his death.
** ''S1m0ne'' has a similar plot.
* Averted in ''[[Highlander (Film)|Highlander]]'' (the first movie): Connor has to keep changing his name every few years and handing his antiques shop down to his new identity. The police find it suspicious that every owner of that property inherited it from the previous owner for at least a century.:
{{quote| '''Nerdy computer guy:''' So what you've got, Brenda, is a guy who's been creeping around since at least 1700, pretending to croak every once in a while, leaving all his goods to kids who've been corpses for years -- and assuming their identities.}}
* In ''[[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|Back to The Future]]'', Marty McFly apparently attends his [[High School]] for a week in 1955 with no problems. At the very least, he hangs out at the school for a few scenes, tells George "you weren't at school today" and goes to the [[High School Dance]]. The movie is rather vague on the point of whether or not he was officially enrolled, probably to avoid drawing attention to this very problem.
** It was November when Marty landed, so it's possible the teachers weren't paying attention to who exactly is supposed to be in their classes.
** Doc Brown nods to the trope a little by having a collection of money from various eras. Imagine spending 2009 money in 1999. Or worse, 19''8''9.
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* The eponymous character of Guy Gavriel Kay's ''[[Ysabel]]'' is briefly annoyed when, having been reincarnated in France for the umpteenth time since the Roman Empire, her old stash of francs that she hid last go-round is now useless. She steals another woman's purse instead.
* In the novel ''[[Methuselahs Children|Methuselah's Children]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]], the problems with getting an [[Undead Tax Exemption]] are mentioned as one reason why the long-lived Howard Family members are attempting to see if they can end their [[Masquerade]]. In ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'', it's shown that their descendants throughout the centuries continue to come up with ways to hide the fact that they're much longer lived than their fellow humans. The records of their genealogy, however, are fastidiously maintained in the secret Family files.
* Averted and touched upon in [[Douglas Adams]]' novel ''[[The Long Dark Tea -Time of the Soul (Literature)|The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul]]'', in which Dirk Gently realizes that the god Thor would have a huge amount of difficulty if he wanted to use an airplane because he has no passport, no birth certificate...
* In ''[[Spirits That Walk In Shadow]]'', one of the main characters, a witch, has no official ID, but her father just magically creates a driver's license for her (which exists only until she puts it back in her pocket). This is so that she can attend university, something most of her people don't choose to do.
* In the first two books of [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Blood Books]]'' series, policeman Michael Celluci investigates his romantic rival, vampire (and romance writer) Henry Fitzroy -- and, naturally, finds the sort of gaping holes in Henry's ID that you'd expect with someone who was born (and died) well before Social Security numbers and driver's licenses were created. Of course, skeptical as Celluci is, "vampire" is not what he first thinks when he finds those holes and informs Vicki of them; he's rather nonplussed when she laughs at him when he suggests that Henry might be affiliated with the Mafia because of it, though.
* Repeatedly averted in the ''[[Repairman Jack]]'' novels, in which Jack expends considerable thought and effort on establishing false identities, through which to obtain credit cards and other conveniences, while remaining off the grid of officialdom. When he ''does'' consider becoming a fully-documented citizen, because Gia wants him to legally marry her {{spoiler|before their baby comes}}, the logistics of setting up a sufficiently solid identity for himself are so complex, Jack suspects it'll use up nearly all the gold he's been hoarding from his hired-vigilante work.
* The Cullen family of ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' move every few years and are able to assume identities, get jobs and enroll in school -- this seems impossible until ''Breaking Dawn'', when it is revealed that they work with a professional fraudster who can provide them with fake passports, drivers licenses, etc.
** They have been doing this for a long time and have also amassed a lot of money and contacts to grease the wheels.
*** Pointed out in Maryann Johanson's [http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2010/06/062910the_twilight_saga_eclipse_revi.html review of the film]:
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*** Though not without problems -- when his "Real" parents (actually evil aliens) turned up to claim him, she had real problems trying to explain why she hadn't gone to the authorities when she found him. At least she realised that "But they can't be his real parents -- he was constructed by the Bane!" probably wouldn't help her case.
* Korean drama ''[[My Girlfriend Is a Nine Tailed Fox]]'' has [[Punny Name|Gu Mi-Ho]] able to, with the help from a halfling, falsify records and establish an identity. Before this however, it was an aversion of the trope.
* Averted in ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'', where a young accidental time-traveller is provided with paperwork, gets herself a job, and heads off happily to London for her new life.
* Averted in one instance by ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', when {{spoiler|Buffy}} is raised from the dead and is able to re-integrate immediately into society, just as if she'd never died at all. In real life, people who have mistakenly been declared dead in some government database can spend years trying to get the bureaucracy to acknowledge and correct the error. But {{spoiler|Buffy}} was never declared dead. The Scoobies actively hid her death through use of {{spoiler|1=the BuffyBot}}.
** Although she did get a gravestone. A gravestone in a remote area, so no one other than the Scoobies knew it existed.
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*** The deliberately [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] Gavin Park quickly recognizes that they can shut Angel Investigations down simply by pointing out Angel's ID issues to the government. Just to spite Gavin, Lilah gets Angel all the documents he needs.
** Humorously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in "The Girl in Question", when Spike's rant reveals that the Immortal had him thrown in prison for tax evasion.
* In ''[[Forever Knight (TV)|Forever Knight]]'' the vampire-cop considers moving on at one point, and visits a vampire whose specialty is providing false identities for this very purpose.
** At one point he also has to dummy up birth records when someone starts looking into his past.
* Tsukasa, the eponymous ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', nicely skirts around this by instantly adjusting to his new dimension through some cosmic force. He always finds himself with the skills, documentation, equipment and attire for whatever his job may be. This is later explained in the [[Grand Finale]] movie: {{spoiler|Decade's job is to be whatever a given dimension needs him to be - hero or villain, savior or destroyer. Thus, the job adjustment is simply him being handed his role by [[The Powers That Be]].}}
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** It is alluded to in the series that his personas are temporary at best and would not stand closer scrutiny. He only has to pass the initial check, find what he is looking for and then leave. He does his research in a very low key position and only then assumes the high profile persona needed to accomplish his mission. Once he 'saves the day' he has to leave really quick before he is stopped or the bad guys find him.
* Averted in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', where the protagonists have to go to great lengths to hide the fact that Chuck is alive from just about everybody. She uses an alias in public, and--as the page quote shows--doesn't have any valid ID.
* Averted by ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun|3rd Rock From The Sun]]'', in which it was made clear that Tommy phonied up their Earth identities and all the required paperwork. When they admit they lost their originals without ever submitting them to the proper authorities, he hurriedly throws new ones together...with some spite thrown in at having to do it again, such as deciding that Sally was a male-to-female [[Transsexual]], much to her chagrin. Subverted in an episode where they get audited and make up several far-out stories to explain why they haven't paid their taxes before. Eventually, they admit to being aliens and the IRS guy looks at them for a [[Beat]] before saying "Sorry, I've heard that one too."
* In an episode of ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'', the [[Alpha Bitch]] spends a whole day trapped inside a book. Upon being released, she is convinced that it's still the same day and immediately goes on with her life. Even if we assume she's a total idiot and won't eventually notice that it's a day later, there's still the little issue that there would be an AMBER Alert on her by that point.
* Both versions of ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' have this problem for the vampire Barnabas Collins. Pretending to be a cousin from England helps him be accepted by the family, and he can sell his old jewels to get money, but that isn't going to get him a Social Security number or credit card, or let him open up a bank account. Especially since he'll have needed those to buy a wardrobe and renovate the old house.
** Presumably he had Willie Loomis do most of the shopping for him, as well as bring him up to speed on how to blend in to the 20th century.
* The ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' TV series deals with this a few times, although the exact treatment seems to vary [[Depending Onon the Writer]], or maybe depending on the plot of an episode. Presumably most or all immortals have to do this in modern society, and do so successfully (perhaps relying on black market sources and fraud/forgery of official documents). Some even manage it despite very public deaths (most notable are a guy who made a circus act out of the fact that he couldn't be killed, and Richie, Duncan's [[Sidekick]], who had become a professional motorcycle racer and died on the track). Mostly, this is treated as little more than a bother and having to leave town for awhile, but a few times there have been attempts at justifications, such as Duncan complaining about how hard it is to forge/alter records and documentation for his friend Hugh Fitzcairn, who has not adopted well to new technology like computers.
** Another episode played with the trope: when a friend of Duncan's shows up on his doorstep with police right behind her she claims it was because she was in the same hotel as a VIP that was killed and afterward the police had realized that her paperwork didn't check out and have been following her since. The truth is that, haunted by her failure to assassinate Hitler and potentially save many lives, she has taken it upon herself to go around assassinating would-be dictators and [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|those who spark off hate crimes]] so that the world will never go through that again.
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', Jack O'Neill gets a clone who, due to a screw-up on [[Mad Scientist|Loki]]'s part, is a teenager. In the end, the clone decides to go back to high school and make his own way. How they get him the necessary documents to do so is not explained. Of course, this is the same organization that can hide Stargate Command, which is an element at least the size of a few battalions. One kid oughta be easy.
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** In addition to Jack's younger clone, at least half a dozen aliens here and there have been found off-world, presumably brought to earth and integrated into human society, and never seen again. In the [[Stargate Verse]], the Witness Protection Program must have a permanent office set up in Colorado Springs, CO, and/or Stargate Command has a permanent liaison with the WPP.
** Ba'al would be a better example. He ends up on Earth, as a freaking CEO of a huge high-tech company, and no-one seems to know where he came from, or how he got to be in charge. Of course, one must remember that Ba'al has control of the Trust, a shadow organization that has roots in most major government agencies. No doubt they could manage to forge the relevant documents.
* In ''[[Being Human (TV)|Being Human]]'', all the vampires seem to have jobs. For example, [[Big Bad]] Herrick is a local policeman, and the vampire's lair is an undertakers. This is justified as vampire society has centuries of experience in hiding in plain sight, and it is implied there are vampires in high places. Also, Annie (a ghost) got a job as a barmaid. This isn't completely impossible, as Annie can (usually) pass for a normal human, and if she gets paid cash in hand, there wouldn't be the fact she's legally as well as biologically dead to worry about.
** In Season 2, the system starts coming apart after {{spoiler|Herrick's death}}, and Mitchell has to work to cover up for the rest of the vampires. Especially whenever one of them slips and kills someone.
** In one of the [[Expanded Universe]] Books it's revealed that vampires get normal humans to act as body doubles so they can have passport photos.
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* ''[[Time Trax]]'': A basic premise of the series is that travelers from the future can easily manipulate 20th-century American electronic databases with their advanced 22nd-century computer technology. The protagonist once had to sit tight in a small county jail cell because they didn't check records with computers.
* Lampshaded with [[True Blood|Sophie-Anne, the Vampire Queen of Louisiana]]. She amassed immense wealth over the years, using undead tax exemption to her advantage. But now that Vampires have come into the open, the IRS is after her.
* ''[[Remington Steele (TV)|Remington Steele]]'': The eponymous character is actually a made up persona taken over by a con man. He had no problems the first season, but the second season starts out with a visit from the IRS, curious about the lack of about twenty odd years of income tax filings.
* In the start of ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'', Stefan tries to become a new student and is quizzed on his lack of vaccinations and paperwork. He has to hypnotize the secretary to believe that everything is in order.
* Played oddly in ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'', with travelers from the year 3000. Its explicitly stated that their drivers' licenses are invalid in the present... but getting a new one is a simple matter of taking the test, with no problems of legal existence.
* Averted example in [[Eureka]] after a women thought to be dead shows up in town due it having been a clone that died, Carter begins going on and on about how hard it'll be to convince all the bureaucracies that declared her dead that she now alive. Only to find out the town of Eureka [[Crazy Prepared|has a standard Resurrection Form that takes care of everything.]]
* One of Parker's cover identities on ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'' is so thoroughly documented that she got called for jury duty.
 
 
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** Similarly, the rare [[Promethean: The Created|Promethean]] who manages to become human. While usually one of the Created can operate 'under the radar', when they become fully human their history is going to be rather interesting. "So what did you do before this?" "Oh, I wandered the earth as a monster trying not to fuck up the world too much until I managed to become human, what'd you do?" "I was in banking too."
*** Reborn Prometheans usually have no [[Victory-Guided Amnesia|memory]] of their former existence, which means even ''they'' wonder about the gaps in their past, with occasionally tragic results.
* Somewhat averted in ''[[In Nomine (Tabletop Game)|In Nomine]]''. Angels and demons have to have "Roles" crafted for them to fit into society, get a driver's license, etc. Role creation is an equal mix of metaphysical miracle (a powerful superior convincing the universe that you "belong there") and of having celestials in their own Roles (in the DMV, Social Security Office, etc.) manipulating records to make this possible.
** ''[[Tabletop Game/In Nomine Satanis|In Nomine Satanis]]/MagnaVeritas'' completely averts the problem by having angels and demons incarnate into an existing person. Demons incarnate when a person dies with few enough witnesses, while angels incarnate in very pious people who donate their body. Archangels' (and demon princes') Avatars just pop into existence, but they vanish within a few minutes so it's not a problem either.
* King Kaius III of Karrnath in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Eberron]]'' was known as King Kaius I when he was turned into a vampire. He faked his death, returning years later posing as his own grandson. Since he's the King he doesn't have to worry about paying taxes, but he is concerned with keeping the truth about his identity secret from his people.
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== Web Comics ==
* [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', where someone in the government is responsible for creating the legal identities.
** That, and everyone is either a shapeshifter or has access to a transformation device of some sort.
* Something like this happens in ''[[The Wotch]]'' with Mingmei, who is a middle-aged [http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2003-02-12 Latino man transformed into a teenage Asian girl]. A [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|quick memory-altering spell]] allows her to pass herself off as an exchange student, but the larger problems of lack of paperwork, a real family back in Japan, or any means of support are not addressed... [http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2005-10-05 till] [http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2005-11-25 later].
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