Originally Posted by
GUWonder
I can guarantee that State is still issuing US passports to US citizens who don't have a SSN. Plenty of US citizens don't have a SSN and are yet legally entitled to a US passport upon paying a fee and otherwise meeting the conditions to qualify for a US passport; and these people are still getting US passports issued as of today at least. If the passport applicants have a SSN, then the SSN of the passport applicant must be filed with the passport application for smooth processing.
The difference is that now, if you enter 000-00-0000, they require a signed statement, under penalty of perjury, that the applicant does not have a SSN. So while the SSN is not required, and in fact requiring cannot be legal as it violates the Privacy Act of 1974, they can prosecute on the catch-all "perjury" if you sign that form. So effectively, if you have a SSN, you must use it, or you will be denied a passport. This is what I was told by multiple people at the information number. So the only people that can get a passport without a SSN are people that do not have an SSN. This is a major change from previous policy.
Originally Posted by
GUWonder
The gap between passport issue date and the date of passport delivery by mail/courier is the slowest it's been in quite some time.
This is quite unfortunate, especially since we live ~700 miles away from the Seattle Passport Agency. It looks like we will need to go in person this week.