Should the credential track the issue date of the underlying privilege?

[jandrieu]

Given that these digital credentials are understood to be a digital version of an underlying status, such as permanent residency, is there any value in keeping track of an issue date of that underlying status distinct from the issuance date of the actual credential?

This is not quite "resident since".

If we don't track the issue date of the underlying privilege, we may still need to track the authorization date for getting a digital credential. The issuance date is when the individual's identifier is bound to the credential digitally, presumably when just before they download it, which is not the same as when the issuing authority authorized a given person to retrieve the digital credential.

In short, there are three dates related to authorization and issuing:

1. issue date of the real-world credential, e.g., the issue date of the permanent resident card of which this is a digital version
2. authorization date for the beneficiary to be able to download the digital credential
3. issue date of the digital credential--when the digital credential is formally minted as a Verifiable Credential

Arguably, issue date 1 is tied to the physical credential and not relevant here. Alternatively, it may be that issue date 1 is the same as authorization date, if the digital credential is authorized when the real-world credential is issued.

Either way, we should figure out which of these is important to record. There is definitely a point in time before issuance where the credential is authorized. Since these two are distinct events, and the latter is dependent on the beneficiary, it seems they should both be captured.