Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 2, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Courtesy The Department of New Yorker Verification
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 2, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
For those who weren’t born and raised in New York City, how long must you live in the five boroughs to qualify as an official New Yorker? What if you were born in the city but have moved away? Can you still claim citizenship? The perennially contentious question of who may claim the city as their own can now be decisively answered. By whom? The Department of New Yorker Verification, which is now accepting formal applications.
On its website, the DNYV explains that it “exists to answer — on the record, and by evidence — a question the city has argued about for 400 years. What makes a New Yorker? Residence is an address. The title is earned.”
Franz Aliquo, a Bayside-born, Roosevelt Island-raised creative director and artist who’s been organizing participatory hijinks around NYC and beyond since the late 1990s, currently runs all aspects of the department. He built the site this summer, inspired by native New Yorkers who are “dicks” and gatekeep the New Yorker identity, including current Los Angeles resident Jennifer Lopez and himself. In a viral June Subway Takes video, she declared, “You have to be born in New York to be a New Yorker” and the conversation it spurred also inspired the site’s creation.
“I was like, there should be someone or something that can decide who's a New Yorker, because otherwise there’s too many different theories of what qualifies. Why not have an agency that decides it for everybody?” Aliquo explained. Also, “ I like the idea of having an agency that initially has absolutely no power, but if people use it, then they are giving me their power, and then I can be the one that decides who's a New Yorker or not.”
The website itself is straightforward in its design and very convincingly looks like a City website — a bit too convincingly, in fact.
So far, the only applicant has been a rackets investigator from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office who found the site’s verisimilitude to be potentially problematic.
“He told me what I was doing was ‘a little shady’ and encouraged me to ‘change some stuff.’ So I changed some stuff,” said Aliquo.
The DNYV homepage now states “Not the City of New York” at the bottom, and has a reminder that “Actual Official websites use nyc.gov” (as opposed to DNYV’s .nyc) at the top.
But just like on a city agency site, you have to submit documents to the DNYV to get your license. To prove your New York authenticity, Aquilo requires applicants to show they “came of age” in the city. As proof, Aliquo accepts high school transcripts, signed affidavits from parents, teachers, friends, bodega owners and “anyone on the block.”
Aliquo is still finishing the application system for determining if current city residents not born in the boroughs are New Yorkers or not. “That should be live in probably a couple of weeks,” he said.
Once completed, that application will involve testifying to various point-coded life facts and experiences: Every year of NYC residency is worth 50 points, for a maximum of 500 points. Individuals also must report at least 250 “suffering points” for enduring Big Apple nightmares like getting bed bugs, getting scabies, getting mugged, waking up early to move a car for alternate-side parking (“that’s not gonna give you a lot of points though”) and falling into a subway grate and getting attacked by a rat (“that’s a lot of points”).
For those who accrue 1,000 or more points or can prove they were born here, thus meeting “the stringent standards of being a New Yorker," Aliquo said, "I will press the verify button, and you’ll get sent a totally sweet PDF certificate that you can frame, and a digital ID,” free of charge.
Aliquo has so far made two honorary IDs and certificates, for J. Lo and his late friend and photographer Ricky Powell, whom Aliquo called “a solid New Yorker.”
Although the awarded certificate never expires, the department also maintains the ability to revoke verification if the individual is found to be disrespectful, racist, or otherwise hateful of the City and its people. This goes for natives, as well as transplants. “A person raised in a borough who holds the City's people in contempt is recorded as a person from New York, but not a New Yorker,” declares the site’s Code of Conduct page. “Geography is an accident. Respect is a choice.”
Aliquo plans to have a list of New Yorkers who’ve had their verification revoked. In doing this, he hopes to encourage respect. Though he knows his verifications are not city-sanctioned, he seeks the approval of one very official New Yorker.
“ Ultimately, I just really want Mamdani to say something. I'd like him to apply,” Aliquo said.
Tagged
Existing in New York City
manhattan
Hannah Frishberg
Hannah Frishberg covers New York City arts and culture. Got a tip? Email Hannah at [email protected].
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
Published Oct 4, 2026
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
An excellent and diverse month of concerts are in store for October.
By
Hank Shteamer
Arts & Entertainment
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
An excellent and diverse month of concerts are in store for October.
By
Hank Shteamer
In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
October is spooky season at the movies in New York City
By
Emma Stefansky
At the Museum at FIT, an argument for dolls as the ultimate fashion influencers
By
Quinn Moreland
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .