Posted on 04/27/2011 9:00:54 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
If you don’t want it to get even harder for a U.S. citizen to get a passport — now required for travel even to Canada or Mexico — you only have until Monday to let the State Department know.
The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a variety of other information. According to the proposed form, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.”
The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.
It seems likely that only some, not all, applicants will be required to fill out the new questionnaire, but no criteria have been made public for determining who will be subjected to these additional new written interrogatories. So if the passport examiner wants to deny your application, all they will have to do is give you the impossible new form to complete.
It’s not clear from the supporting statement, statement of legal authorities, or regulatory assessment submitted by the State Department to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) why declining to discuss one’s siblings or to provide the phone number of your first supervisor when you were a teenager working at McDonalds would be a legitimate basis for denial of a passport to a U.S. citizen.
There’s more information in the Federal Register notice (also available here as a PDF) and from the Identity Project.
You can submit comments to the State Dept. online at Regulations.gov until midnight Eastern time on Monday, April 25, 2011. Go here, then click the “Submit a Comment” button at the upper right of the page. If that link doesn’t work for you, it’s probably a problem with the javascript used on the Regulations.gov website. There are alternate instructions for submitting comments by email here.
Yet the defenders of 0b0z0 tell us that the rules don't apply to him.
The ‘Paper Curtain’ slams down on America.
I am supposed to remember the address of an apartment I lived in 40 years ago or the address of my college dorm. Who would I contact for that information? The FBI perhaps.
Decades ago to obtain a passport or to become a member of the US Military without restrictions, you had to have a COLB with the certified stamp on it. That same law still applies.
0b0z0’s newest COLB would not allow 0b0z0 to get a passport, yet his defenders say no problem with him being an illegal president.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html
3.Submit Evidence of U.S. Citizenship:
When applying for a U.S. passport in person, evidence of U.S. citizenship must be submitted with Form DS-11. All documentation submitted as citizenship evidence will be returned to you. These documents will be delivered with your newly issued U.S. passport or in a separate mailing.
Primary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship (One of the following):
Previously issued, undamaged U.S. Passport
Certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state*
Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth
Naturalization Certificate
Certificate of Citizenship
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>>> The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants.....
Why ‘some applicants’? Why not for all?
And let’s face it, the questions they want answered they couldn’t put in on the form -
Who did you vote for in election XXX?
Which candidates (which party) did you donated to, and how much?
“The ‘Paper Curtain’ slams down on America.”
Actually, for the rest of America, we have had a paper curtain for as long as I can remember.
In the early 1960’s I was cleared for Top Secret and I had to fill in all that is asked on the new passports for myself, my wife and much of the same data for our parents.
My wife carried our 40 something year old sons’s certified COLBs for decades to get them into school, sports and other endeavors.
My wife and I have two passports. One that was issued before 9/11 and one after 9/11. We use copies of both to get on plane easier at the airport.
Because of 9/11 to obtain a driver’s license in California and probably most other states all DMV data/info must match your social security data.
Yet the above requirements apparently don’t apply if you want to vote in America or be president.
I guess you don’t need a birth certificate. Only a certificate of live birth is needed now...
This has been ramping up for years. Obama wasn't president in 2007 when, upon returning to the US from a trip to England I was questioned why I had traveled abroad. I still wish I had pushed back a little, but I had a flight connection to make. I'm sure that's what they're counting on.
It's intended to prevent illegals and others wishing to do this country harm from getting passports...
“mother’s address one year prior to your birth”
Insane. My elderly parents might not even remember that. And what about folks whose mothers are dead? Who ya gonna ask?
“This has been ramping up for years. Obama wasn’t president in 2007 when, upon returning to the US from a trip to England I was questioned why I had traveled abroad. I still wish I had pushed back a little, but I had a flight connection to make. I’m sure that’s what they’re counting on.”
Even before then. In the mid 1990’s my trophy wife and I flew to the UK for a couple of weeks. I brought on the plane 3 valuable fly rods/reels/lines and flies so they didn’t get lost.
We only had a couple of hundred pounds between us, 100 francs and a few $’s which was stated on the forms after we got on the plane.
That difference must have triggered some alarms. We were challenged by what we believed to be treasury agents re so little cash.
They asked how we were going to last 2 two weeks in the Uk with a day trip to Paris on so little money. I took out my ATM card and showed them.
They kept asking us and my wife said, “Hey we just put our sons through college and helped them to get started. How much money do think we have?”
One of the guys had a sense of humor and was a parent with two kids in college. He laughed and told us to enjoy the trip.
The return trip from the UK was even more interesting.
Unknown to us the unibomber had threatened to take out an airplane flying from the UK to the States that day.
So the tight security at Heathrow was even tighter.
My wife had bought a crystal vase at one of the airport stores. Crystal vases have lead in them and alarmed those checking our luggage via blocking the xrays. She and her bag were taken to the side while she took the vase out to show them.
I had bought a couple of trophy Richard Wheatley wood fly boxes at Harrod’s with trophy fishing flies in them. The security guys wanted them opened up, and I told them they want to steal my flies. One of their guys agreed and had me go out of line to show the boxes and flies.
Also, they wanted to know why I was carrying my fly rods, reels, lines and other flies with me. I said I didn’t trust their luggage apes and the American luggage apes. Again, I had some of them agree with me.
While fly fishing in the UK, I had discovered a dead cow near the stream I fished at. I informed the clerk at the inn where we were staying, and he informed the officials. A herd of them descended on the inn and the farm and asked me questions about how close did I come to the dead cow. I said I stayed up wind and up stream. They thanked me for alerting them.
When we got to the States, we had triggered the treasury guys again, and we had less money declared than when we started. I was prepared and told them to check our charge card receipts and atm receipts. One of the T guys who had hassled us on the trip over on this team. My wife said that we brought back millions of $’s since college costs were so low. They laughed and let us go.
Then, after clearing treasury/customs and getting our baggage, we were told to wait for a USDA guy. He was very interested in the dead cow, which apparently died from Mad Cow disease.
I told him he could keep my wading boots with the felt soles and about staying upstream and up wind from the dead cow. He took the boots and said we could go.
Personally, I hope that they make this law of the land to block illegals and criminals from getting passports to leave and come back into this country.
The data requests appear to be similiar to what many of us had to submit to get Top Secret clearances.
That’s all bureaucracy and red tape — but it’s not like my experience, in which I was subjected to questioning simply because I had chosen to leave the country. Why I did so is my own business, and it’s outrageous that a citizen should have to justify his decision to travel like a free man.
Asking “What were you doing outside the USA?” is not what Americans died to defend. And meanwhile we have Dubya and his flying monkeys burbling on about how “they hate us because we’re free”. Bah.
BOL! My wife basically said the same, yesterday, when we discussed this.
“THIS IS F.A.T. of our government. The problem is that people get into this county illegally.... so naturally the US Government’s reaction is to make it more difficult to leave the country....”
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