State Department wants passport applicants to reveal lifetime employment history 
 
 By David Edwards 
 
 Monday, April 25, 2011 13:09 EDT 
 
 The U.S. Department of State has proposed a new questionnaire that would make it almost impossible for some people to get a passport. 
 
 The new document (PDF) would require that certain applicants submit a list of every residence and every job they’ve ever had since birth. 
 
 In February, the department published a request in the Federal Register allowing 60 days for comment before the new rules go into effect. 
 
 “The Biographical Questionnaire for a U.S. Passport, form DS-5513, is used to supplement an application for a U.S. passport when the applicant submits citizenship or identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity,” according to a supporting statement (PDF) issued along with the request for comment. 
 
 “This form is used prior to passport issuance and solicits information relating to the respondent’s family, birth circumstances, residences, schooling, and employment,” the statement added. 
 
 “In addition to this primary use of the data, the DS-5513 may also be used as evidence in the prosecution of any individual who makes a false statement on the application and for other uses as set forth in the Prefatory Statement and the Passport System of Records Notice (State-26).” 
 
 The document also requires some applicants to submit information about the mother’s pre-natal and post-natal care, the mother’s residence one year before and after the birth, the persons in attendance at the birth and religious or institutional recordings of the birth. 
 
 “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,” Consumer Traveler’s Edward Hasbrouck noted. 
 
 The Consumer Travel Alliance opposes the new form as “exceeding the statutory authority of the DOS, unconstitutional, and in violation of U.S. obligations pursuant to international human rights treaties to which the U.S. is a party,” according to draft comments (PDF) prepared by the group. 
 
 “[C]hoosing to require an applicant for a passport to complete the proposed Form DS-5513, which few if any applicants could complete, would amount to a de facto decision to deny that applicant a passport. And that decision would be standardless, arbitrary, and illegal,” they added. 
 
 The State Department had not returned a call asking for comment at the time of publication. ||||| State Dept adding intrusive, semi-impossible questionnaire for US passport applications 
 
 Olga sez, "The U.S. Dept of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for passport applicants: proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history, personal details of siblings; mother's addresses prior to your birth; any "religious ceremony" around time of birth, circumstances of birth including names (as well as addresses/phone numbers) of persons present, & more. Failure to answer can mean denial of passport, & govt reserves right to use this info for 'routine uses.'" 
 
 Update: Commenters note that this form is specifically intended in lieu of a birth certificate with a passport application; but as the FA suggests, the circumstances in which people unable to provide a birth certificate will be given this form (rather than the traditional bureaucratic investigation) are not spelled out; further, the form itself remains a Kafkaesque impossibility for most people to complete. 
 
 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. 
 
 You've got the rest of today to submit your comments on this proposal. Lots of additional material at the link below. 
 
 State Dept. wants to make it harder to get a passport 
 
 (Image: US Passport, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from damian613's photostream) 
 
 report this ad ||||| 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. 
 
 (Note that the proposed form itself was not published in the Federal Register. The Identity Project was eventually provided with a copy after requesting it from the Department of State, and posted it here.) 
 
 Here are the comments (PDF) being submitted by the Consumer Travel Alliance and other consumer, privacy, and civil liberties groups and individuals, if you would like to use it for ideas for comments of your own. (They’re also available in OpenOffice format for easier editing.) 
 
 Extra points to the person who gives the best answer in the comments to the question on the proposed form, “Please describe the circumstances of your birth including the names (as well as address and phone number, if available) of persons present or in attendance at your birth.” 
 
 [Update: More than 3000 people and several organizations submitted comments opposing the proposal in the final days before the deadline. Those comments raise further concerns: It appears from some of the comments that the State Department is already using a version of this form, without the required OMB approval.] ||||| John GilmoreArchive-It Partner Since: Apr, 2007Organization Type: Other InstitutionsOrganization URL: http://www.toad.com John Gilmore is a private individual who cares about archiving the Internet for future generations. He is the first individual to join the Archive-It program, as a partner with the Internet Archive, to collect and index documents of interest. Mr. Gilmore also co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
– Need a passport? Better find your birth certificate, because the State Department is considering a new, and nearly impossible to complete, form that would be required for those who can't produce one. In addition to "easy" questions like listing every residence and job you've had since birth and, of course, the personal details of all your siblings, Form DS-5513 includes such baffling queries as where you were circumcised and who was present at your birth. Reactions: On Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow notes that "the circumstances in which people unable to provide a birth certificate will be given this form (rather than the traditional bureaucratic investigation) are not spelled out; further, the form itself remains a Kafkaesque impossibility for most people to complete." "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," writes Edward Hasbrouck on Consumer Traveler. The Blaze points out that the document claims the questionnaire is voluntary, “but failure to provide the information requested may result in processing delays or the denial of your US passport application.” The questionnaire would be used "when the applicant submits citizenship or identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity," according to official documents. On the Raw Story, David Edwards concludes that the form "would make it almost impossible for some people to get a passport." On Reason.com, Radley Balko calls the form "disturbing" and the questions "creepy" and "impossible to answer." Nick Greene concurs in the Village Voice, calling it "completely confounding" and noting that "a team of researchers is needed to complete it." See the form here.