Do dependant choice lists need to be linked by an integer field?

Good Day,

I am trying to make one choice list dependant on another list but after I set up the relations and configure the child field to be dependant and then navigate to the check in profile..

No data appears in the child drop down list.

When I don't have the two fields linked the child list is populated with data.

I have made other dependant choice lists without issues but all value fields used to link the fields were integers while in this case the fields are varchar is that the reason I can't get this to work?

I attached screenshots to show my configuration settings.