Ari

I figured as much.

ehasbrouck

The proposed new "Biographical Questionnaire" for some passport applicants and supporting documents are linked from here. You can submit commits through April 25, 2011.

drewguy

Anyone know if the old form is still usable? I have one already filled out (actually, my wife does)?

doober

Like State/DHS are going to be able to input all that information correctly, cross-reference and then check it. How much is this nonsense costing us?

GUWonder

It certainly will have cost more than enough to feed 2,500 starving people in the poorer parts of the world. There isn't much like this at the federal government level that costs less than $1,000,000.

ehasbrouck

Instructions on how to submit comments are here.

Objections to the proposed form have been filed by the Identity Project (IDP), the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights (CFPHR), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), Privacy Activism, Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA), Robert Ellis Smith, and John Gilmore, in addition to many others

goalie

Maybe related to this (now moved to OMNI/PR) thread?

International Travel: Passport Denied if Gov Thinks You Owe Taxes

GUWonder

No, not related. The "new passport forms" were formulated independently from -- and prior to -- the GAO recommendation release that is the basis of the above hyperlinked travel thread about passport rights being considered for further restriction on the basis noted in that thread title.

Fredd

This issue just came to my attention in an e-mail through a blogger I follow, The Travel Insider.

It's hard to imagine anybody of a certain age being able to answer such questions as these, and the claim that it could be completed in 45 minutes is laughable.

I can read that one part of the form is to be answered only by those who experienced "non-institutional births" or "delayed birth filings." This results in questions such as:

9. Did your mother receive pre-natal or post-natal medical care?
Hospital or other facility:
Address:
Name of Doctor:
Dates of appointments:

10. What type of document, if any, did your mother use to enter into the United States before your birth?
11. 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:

Its practical effect would seem to be to deny a passport to just about anybody who is required to complete the form to obtain one.

For those of us who enjoy irony, it could be suggested that perhaps Congress should take this up and demand it be completed by all future presidential candidates?

aragno

This is slightly off-topic but hope someone can easily answer. When applying for a passport for my baby, how can I specify I want the baby to receive one fo the US Passports which comes "pre-loaded" with additional pages? I heard such passports exist but must be requested- just not sure how to do that!

I would like to do this before coughing up 80 something bucks for additional pages later on.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Ari

Pretty simple, actually. Go to page 5 of the following pdf (passport application):

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79955.pdf

Then check the box for a 52-page passport. Easy, right?

-------------------------------------

Since the baby's passport will only be good for 5 years, you must have a baby that will be traveling an awful lot or need a ton of visas!!!

GUWonder

Singapore-Malaysia-Singapore weekend trips across the causeway to Johor Bahru takes up a lot of pages for US citizens resident in Singapore with family in Malaysia. 6-8 stamps in a week is readily possible for children for those not even doing the trip for leisure/family visit purposes. Those doing cross-border lifestyles for school, well that is another matter of sorts.

Fredd

After one quick day-trip with fellow FTers to Malaysia in a bum boat at last year's SIN DO, the Singapore departure, Malaysia entry, Malaysia departure, and Singapore entry stamps resulted in Mrs. Fredd having to quickly have pages added to her passport in person by appointment prior to our next trip. That one little side excursion alone had used up the remaining space she'd been counting on to last her awhile.

aragno

Ah, yes... being in Singapore means lots of trips in the region and many destinations requiring a full page visa plus stamps. This is not to mention trips to/from the US and not knowing where we will live in 1.5 years from now. Visa for Nigeria (while we lived there) alone took up nearly an entire passport for various reasons....

Anway, thanks for the guidance on the 52 page passport. I think I will go for the same when the time comes

mules

Arthur Frommer has an opinion today on the new questionnaire and an aside comment on the scanner/patdown critics:

http://www.frommers.com/blog/?plckCo...entId=blogDest

"...It also appears that the new questionnaire will need to be answered if the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has indicated that the applicant is not who they claim to be -- in other words, if a red flag has been raised about the possibility of a would-be terrorist seeking a U.S. passport.

What kind of red flags? The fact that the applicant has recently traveled to Somalia. Or that they have lived in the border areas of eastern Pakistan. Or that the applicant is applying for a U.S. passport despite the fact that they already possess a foreign passport. As such, these circumstances seem to justify the TSA's attempt to determine whether the applicant is really the person they claim to be.

Several months ago, there was an eruption of protest against the pat-and-search policies of the TSA designed to protect us from being blown up in the course of a flight. That controversy finally dwindled to only an occasional mention, in the wake of a realization by the public of the role that the TSA plays in protecting us from terrorism. The overwhelming majority of Americans is willing to suffer a slight intrusion on our privacy to thwart the effort to bring down planes.

The same with passport issuance. If one out of 200 applicants is asked to prove their citizenship and bona fides, through detailed biographical answers that can be checked and confirmed by either the State Department or the TSA, most of us would agree that the new biographical application forms are fully warranted."