A friend posted a link on facebook yesterday to an article about how there was going to be a new passport application form that was asking for, basically, a complete life history, plus parent’s history, etc. She called bogus on it, and the more I look, the more bogus it looks.
First, I can’t find any copy of it anywhere, except on papersplease.org (and there is a copy on scribd, but it was added just a couple of days ago). Second, in the meta-data, it says the file was last editted the eighth of March, after the request for comments was issued. But the most damning thing that I found is another government pdf here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-02-24/pdf/2011-4154.pdf - it’s not that there is information on the page that contradicts the original pdf, but that this pages shows the following at the top: “Certified by Superintendent of Documents” and has an unalterable digital signature section. Since the other document doesn’t have anything of the kind, it looks very likely that someone created the document just to be inflammatory.
If it’s real, why isn’t there a copy anywhere else? On Consumerist, a few people are claiming that “a friend” had to fill this out (or something like). (BTW, Consumerist commenting system sucks)
Has anyone around here had to fill out a passport application recently? (Better yet, does anyone around here work for a passport office?)
There is currently a proposal open for comments to make a new biographical questionnaire part of the passport application process. But only for the few lucky enough to be selected, according to undisclosed criteria, for the long form.
Sounds like a huge pain in the ass to me, but no, it’s not bogus.
I believe the criteria has actually been disclosed. An article I read a couple days ago*, indicated that the proposed new form will be for those who can’t produce any other generally acceptable ID.
For instance, a musician acquaintance of mine has no ID. He’s a weird little idiot who defaulted on his student loan 15 years ago and he’s afraid that the “government will come after him for the money” so he has deliberated “gone under the radar”. He has no driver’s licence, no birth certificate, no passport, no government ID of any kind, not even a bank account which he can’t open because he has no ID. His paycheck is cashed by his employer’s bank only because the manager has known him for so long. The only ID he has is a tattered and now-expired health card.
Someone like him, who would have an extraordinarily difficult time getting his birth certificate and ID sorted out, would need the proposed new form.
*Sorry, I don’t remember where I saw the article. I followed a link fro a news aggregate website, I’m not even sure which one.
If you do dig up the article, I’d like to see it. I haven’t had the time to follow the story that closely. But given that the State Department has a history of making it difficult for people with unusual circumstances to get passports, I’d really like to keep closer tabs on this one. For chrissakes, I’ve passed a government security check, and there’s no way in Hell I’d be able to dig up all that info!
I found the story I initially read. It contained the following quote:
The quoted statement is from the opening paragraph of a supporting statement (PDF).
Edit: I wonder what would happen to U.S. citizen who has lived abroad for the bulk of his/her life? My parents moved to Canada 40 years ago. I’m was raised in Canada. That form would do diddly when it comes to bolstering my claims of U.S. citizenship.
I’m not sure why you couldn’t get a birth certificate. I was able to get a certified copy of mine 27 years after the fact. Even your friend should be able to get that.
Thanks for posting - will look later. As for you: did your parents file a Consular Report of Birth Abroad? If so, it should be a piece of cake to document your citizenship.
I got an emergency passport back in early December. I did have to have proof of citizenship other than my last passport (it was “destroyed”, which meant it got washed in the laundry), so I brought a copy of my birth certificate, but there were other things on the list besides just that.
Otherwise it wasn’t very invasive at all- name, place of birth, parents’ names, etc… The most annoying part were the hours that the place was open, and the crushing fee to get it done in a hurry.
I don’t doubt that the government could come up with a document like that, and the ACLU thinks it’s legit.
I still think it’s hinky that every single link to the actual questionnaire points to the exact same file on the web. Out of the millions of Americans and thousands of U.S. organizations, this is the only organization that requested the document?
Getting my passport was remarkably easy. Getting my birth certificate was a bit of a hassle… apparently the good people at the Sangamon County courthouse are quite put out if you ask them to notarazie it.
Nope, but regardless of that I was able to get my U.S. citizenship about 20 years ago and carry a U.S. passport. I was just thinking that, someone in my similar position would have a difficult time, due to paperwork inadequacies. For example, to vote, I had difficulties with the absentee ballot form. It required me to register to vote in the same state where I had previously been registered to vote. I was never old enough to vote when I lived in the U.S. Then they said “Ah, then you need to register in the state where you last had residency.” Also a problem for someone who has never been a resident of a state. Edit: I was, so I registered to vote where I lived as a toddler, but I thin it could be awkward for some people in a similar position as me, who grew up abroad, with ex-pats as parents.
He has no ID of any kind. They won’t give that official document to just anybody. All the requisition forms require some proof of identity.
It’s not impossible still, just difficult. My mother, a former social worker, had a job that required her to help people in similar situations, and said she new how to go about it. But paranoid freak-boy isn’t even trying in any case, so declined the offer for help.
Some people are concerned that the new passport has a RFID chip that might be read remotely. There seems to quite a few passport sleeves on the market that block RFID signals.
I just tried applying for a passport, and I have a unique situation since I recently lost my driver’s license, which shed some light on what this form is about.
CA is doing some new thing with the licenses and when I went to the DMV for a replacement they said it would take 3 months (!) for it to come in the mail. Not wanting to be without ID that long, I hoped that I could renew my passport (which is almost 10 years old and water-damaged so nobody will accept it as an ID either) in a shorter time frame. I brought in my birth certificate, the old damaged passport, and a number of other documents to prove my identity.
But they require you to have 2 things:
proof of citizenship - which the birth certificate counts as
“primary” identification - which would be a driver’s license or other state-issued ID of which I had none other than the damaged old passport, which apparently doesn’t count for anything.
if you don’t have the primary ID, their website says you can bring in a combination of other documents to constitute “secondary” ID - I thought I had this more than covered with a school (photo) ID, my SS card, an insurance card, and a credit card.
But when I got to the office the acceptance lady said that she could take it, but even with all those forms of “secondary” ID, they would end up sending me the long form which the OP is talking about asking all my whereabouts etc. for the past 10 years and I really didn’t want to deal with it.
So basically, if you don’t have a “primary”, government-issued, photo ID (not a birth certificate) already then they send it to you. At least according to this lady.