Honestly I scanned front/ back of the drivers license, wrote a letter with a signature held it all to my face and took a bunch of photos and still denied. Like for fuck sake boys, I'll just use another exchange.
I had to LOL at your post, because I basically went through the exact same ordeal as you did--and I don't like Kraken to begin with, but I don't have any way to purchase bitcoin with fiat so I tried the KYC procedure. All the pictures I took weren't good enough, and eventually I just gave up. Not worth it to me.
As to OP's question, it's a bit strange to me. If you need fiat and have USDT, you might not be able to exchange it directly depending on which exchange you're using, but if you're able to trade with fiat you can always do the USDT->BTC->USD route. It might be somewhat of a hassle, but it solves the problem. I've never dealt with USDT myself, so I don't know how the exchanges treat it as far as letting you trade it for fiat--but from reading some of the responses here, it sounds like it's not that big a deal.
If Kraken is one of your only options, then go for it. Just make sure you have a ultra-mega-super high resolution camera that can pick up every hair follicle on your face.