Thou Shall Not Passport!

[ursangnome]

For the vast majority of adult citizens of the United States of America, a copy of a birth certificate and a valid driver's license are sufficient identification to obtain a passport. I, apparently, am not part of the vast majority.

I got a letter today - the State Department will not process my passport application without more information. They require:

• Photocopies of at least three forms of ID that are more than 5 years old (old driver's licenses, old tax documents, etc).
  
• The names, addresses, phone numbers, place and date of birth for all my immediate kin
  
• Name, address, and attendance dates of every school I've ever attended
  
• Name, address, and telephone number for every employer I've had in the past decade
  
• Complete address of every residence I've had in the past decade.
  
• Contact information for two references that have known me for at least 5 years
  

No reason was given for the request. I called, and the polite person on the phone said, "I'm sorry, they don't tell us why. The best I can advise you is to fill out the forms and send them back." I'd have been happy with a simple, "Sorry, we mangled your birth certificate in processing, and it is probably easier for you to give us all this instead of trying to get a new copy of your birth certificate". But they're mum as to why.

As far as I'm aware, I've never done anything to get onto the State Department's radar. I have no criminal record. I have one traffic ticket. I have never taken part in demonstrations, never been on strike. Nothing. I'm squeaky clean. All I want is to have an easy time getting off a Disney cruise line boat while on my honeymoon. Is that too much to ask?

I occasionally joke about conspiracies. If large men in dark suits wearing earpieces and sunglasses come to your door and start asking weird questions about your association with me, don't say I didn't warn you...

Comments

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Except that I also had to furnish the names of every organization I've ever belonged to, this sounds just about exactly like my security clearance form (as it was in 1991).
I was such a goodie two shoes, I sent them a list that included things like Handbell Choir, Girl Scouts, and District Youth Council.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Maybe umbran managed to apply for some High Clearance passport...? The only other thing that sprigs to mind is that they could be getting extremely paranoid and performing thorough background checks on randomly selected citizens.

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Steve suggested perhaps he was "randomly selected," whatever that means. Steve is often "randomly selected" on air flights and I don't think he's particularly happy about that.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

You are not authorized to post here.

[sdavido.livejournal.com]

Having dealt with similar problems in the past, I'd say you have some foreign connection in your family history that is "current," and thus set up some li'l read flags.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

I have a funny name. My father never became a US citizen. He's a perfectly legal imigrant, valid green card and everything. But he also has no criminal records.

If this is the cause, it is pretty damned annoying. This isn't supposed to be a security check. It's an identity check. Dumb government.

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

You are a scientist with a beard who seems suspiciously harmless?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That is annoying! Hope it resolves itself smoothly. If not, this may be helpful. When making preparations for our honeymoon, we discovered that sdavido had, um, misplaced his passport. (He's cute but his organization skills need work.) We sent in the requisite forms and fees to get a replacement, and waited... and waited... and waited some more. When the date was approaching and it hadn't shown up, we tried calling the passport office, which led to several days of frustrating phone loops, each of which gave us a different answer. In a panic at the thought that we might not be able to go, I called up Senator Kennedy's office and asked for help. (I figured, hey, I'd voted for him, and they're supposed to help their constituents, right?) The people on staff were very sympathetic and promised to look into it, and less than a day later we received a phone call from the passport people saying that the passport was on its way. Needless to say I was very grateful! Hopefully you won't get to the point of needing that much help, but if you do, keep it in mind...

It could be

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

That your name sounds similar to someone who they are watching.

I seem to always be tagged by security for an extra check. Esp when flying in and out of Israel. Of course if you were to check of things to cause them to freek I would probably peg the needle so I get used to it. After all I, Look "Middle Eastern", have a pilot's licence, have a degree in physics, oh and I have 3 passports.