If not, you had better think strongly about applying for it now. For the Department of State is thinking about requiring you to tell them every place you have ever lived since the moment you were born.
They also want to know everyone you ever worked for, including your boss's names and their phone numbers. What happens if the factory was ton down decades ago and there are now condos or an office complex on the site?
Why those fuckers at Foggy Bottom need to know where you were living when you were four years old or who you worked for when you were 16 is beyond me. Shitfire, when I had a SBI-grade clearance back in the day, even they didn't go that far back in doing the background check.
Do those assholes at the Department of State really want to deal with the crap-storm that will come their way if they try to do this? For I guarantee that if they are retarded enough to try and require their information, the congresscritters will get a boatload of angry telephone calls from their constituents. And when people get mad and they start bending the ears of congressmen, then stuff starts to flow downhill.
(H/T)
When The Weight Is Froyo-yo-yoing
15 minutes ago
7 comments:
My understanding is that this questionnaire is *only* for if you have no valid U.S. birth certificate proving you were born to U.S. citizens or on U.S. soil, and that you're supposed to fill in as much of it as you can, and then the passport examiner will decide whether there's enough verifiable information there to prove that you're a U.S. citizen.
Right now, if you don't have a valid birth certificate providing citizenship you can't get a passport, period. Which creates a problem for those who were born at home and only have an "Certification of Home Birth" (i.e., no doctor's signature or hospital certificate), which State will not accept as proof of citizenship unless the mother is a U.S. citizen, and also presents a problem for adoptees who often cannot provide proof that they were born in the United States because they are not in possession of their original birth certificate, just the one issued possibly years later to their adopted parents. Assuming that this form is used the way I've been told it's going to be used -- for those who currently don't qualify for a passport *at all* because they have no valid birth certificate proving U.S. birth or U.S. citizenship of the mother -- it's actually going to *expand* the number of people eligible for passports, not *reduce* that number.
- Badtux the Non-paranoid Penguin
Sorry, BadTux, but they will want complete information on your family, where you have lived since your birth and every employer you ever had even if you are a citizen with a birth certificate. Go look at the form for yourself.
Uhm, EBM, read the other part of the RFC for this form. Which states that this form will be given out "when the applicant submits citizenship or identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity". That is, when you cannot provide a valid birth certificate proving citizenship (and a "certification of home birth", filled out by an unlicensed midwife or by the mother herself, does *not* qualify as a valid birth certificate).
The procedures for establishing an applicant’s identity and citizenship are outlined in 22 C.F.R. part 50, subparts B and C. You might want to take a look. Your valid birth certificate plus a state-issued ID (driver's license or equivalent) will in general suffice to establish citizenship and identity. It is only when these are not available that this form comes into play.
- Badtux the Non-paranoid Penguin
Define "questionable". The form contemplates the submission of a birth certificate,
All I know is that if they gave me one, I'd be on the phone to my congressman and senators in a picosecond.
I shouldn't have to do this, since it's a matter of public record, but fine:
§ 51.43 Persons born in the United States applying for a passport for the first time.
(a) Primary evidence of birth in the United States. A person born in the United States in a place where official records of birth were kept at the time of his or her birth shall submit with the application for a passport a birth certificate under the seal of the official custodian of birth records. To be acceptable, a certificate must show the full name of the applicant place and date of birth, and that the record thereof was recorded at the time of birth or shortly thereafter.
I.e., a birth certificate not showing place and date of birth is questionable, and a record filed years after birth is questionable. The birth certificate has to be verifiable at the births registrar of the state in question also.
If you go on further, you see the portion authorizing this particular form, which allows a passport examiner to request additional information and documentation to establish citizenship.
Regarding proof of identity:
§ 51.28 Identity of applicant.
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(a) If the applicant is not personally known to the official receiving the application he or she shall establish his or her identity by the submission of a previous passport, other identifying documents or by an identifying witness.
Practically speaking, a government-issued picture driver's license will suffice as proof of identity, at least it did in my case. The examiner *may* ask to see other things to prove your identity -- credit card, library card, utility bill, etc. -- but usually won't.
Used to be, these regulations were lightly enforced. After 9/11, they became tightly enforced, which has caused problems with adoptees (whose birth certificates are often issued years after birth) and with those born at home (who have a "Certification of home birth") not being able to get passports. The purpose of this particular form is to gather more types of information that could be used to establish citizenship, when the above is not available. The CFR does allow alternate methods of verification of citizenship but does not define those. This form, apparently, is intended to define those alternate methods of verification.
I could also see this being used when they suspect someone has used the birth certificate of a dead child, something that was popular in the 60's and 70's
BadTux, maybe. I just have a hair-trigger to distrust information collection by the feds. Hell, by any level of government. Decades of watching what has gone down has taught me that they are not to be trusted.
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