"Biographical Questionnaire" for passports?

[straydog]

According to the website papersplease.org, the state department is proposing a five page "Biographical Questionnaire" for new passport applicants.

Included in the questionnaire, are questions asking for such data as: All addresses since birth, lifetime employment history-including employers and supervisors names, addresses, and phone numbers. Personal details of all siblings, your mothers address one year before your birth. And what maybe one of the most intrusive questions on the proposed form-what religious ceremony was held for you around the time of birth.

You can read the article at:

www.papersplease.org

[Shirina]

All addresses since birth

LOL! Like anyone is going to remember that.

lifetime employment history-including employers and supervisors names, addresses, and phone numbers.

Or that, either. I mean, don't we all have the address and phone number for that corner grocery store we worked at for 3 months one summer 45 years ago? The one that is now a liquor store?

what religious ceremony was held for you around the time of birth.

This question makes the whole thing sound dubious. I don't know who runs that site or where they purloined their info from, but I would definitely need some corroboration before I believed it.

Most of the information they want isn't even possible to give for many people. I'm not even that old yet I can't remember the address and phone number of where I lived 10 years ago, and I doubt my mother could remember the address and phone number of where she was living a year before I was born.

I smell a rat.

[handyman2]

Seems far fetched but nothing surprises me any more.

[Deleted]

For some reason I had this vision. A person in line (3 or 4th back)holding the passport out, while looking out a window & seeing 100,000 or so others just crossing the border illegally.

[vonnie6200]

Mar 26, 2011 20:30:06 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

For some reason I had this vision. A person in line (3 or 4th back)holding the passport out, while looking out a window & seeing 100,000 or so others just crossing the border illegally.

Too funny!

[Tennesseer]

I asked the psychic John Edwards to channel my parents for a lot of the missing information. The folks have not responded yet so I might use the Ouija board.

[straydog]

H2:
Seems far feched but nothing surprises me anymore.

S:
This question makes the whole thing sound dubious. I don't know who runs that site or where they purloined their info from, but I would definitely need some corroboration before I believed it.

Most of the information they want isn't even possible to give for many people. I'm not even that old yet I can't remember the address and phone number of where I lived 10 years ago, and I doubt my mother could remember the address and phone number of where she was living a year before I was born.

I smell a rat.

SD: I honestly hope that it's not true. I recieved the article in an email from a different pro-privacy website. But, if it does turn out to be true, then I wanted as many people as possible to be aware of it.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

What a crock! The address my mother lived at a year before I was born is now at the bottom of Lake Oroville!

[straydog]

Update: A new article reporting on the proposed 'biographical questionnaire' for new passport applicants.

www.lewrockwell.com/nestmann/nestmann22.1.html

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

So what happens when most people write "I have no idea" in response to most of those questions?

[straydog]

Apr 3, 2011 0:38:53 GMT -5 ❤ mollymouser ❤ said:

So what happens when most people write "I have no idea" in response to most of those questions?

I recently called the state department and asked them about this. The woman who I spoke to did not seem to know about it. I completely forgot to get the number of the proposed form so this is partially my fault.

However, I am sure that it is not uncommon for bureaucrats to not be aware of everything that is going on in their departments.

But she did tell me that if they felt that you did not provide enough information (or if they just want to know more about you for some reason or another), then they would mail out the supplemental form.

The supplemental form includes most of the invasive questions, but, she said that she was not aware of any questions concerning religious ceremony's. I asked her what if I just don't remember-or if I honestly got something wrong; would I be penalized by not being awarded a passport?

She told me that she did not think that they would go back and check just to make sure that the elementary school that you say you attended was the right one.

If you wish to find out more about U.S. passports and you can't find the info on their website, then this is the state dept. passport info #:

1-877-487-2778

[mmhmm]

papersplease.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ds5513-proposed.pdf

The above is a link to the proposed document. It states clearly that question 5-12 need only be answered if your birth was not recorded within one year of said birth, or if you were not born in a medical facility. Otherwise, you don't have to answer them. Questions 5-12 are the highly invasive questions.

The form, if approved, would require all places of residence, and employment (in detail), and schools attended since birth. I'd imagine many, many people won't be able to provide all the information requested. I certainly wouldn't be able to do so; however, my birth was recorded and there is a birth certificate on record in the state in which I was born. That should be enough to prove I was born in this country, where, and on what date.

I really believe this to be a tempest in a teapot, to be frank. If you are truly concerned, there is contact information provided in the form shown on the document linked to below:

frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=10421&dbname=2011_register

Public opinion is to be sent to the individual named in the document. The email for this individual is [e-mail].

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

I don't think a CITIZEN should have to provide any information our GUESTS aren't asked to provide. More government bullsh**. I'm seriously considering a different citizenship.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

I'm gonna be making stuff up right and left. I can't remember, and I'm not going to look up, all this information. I'll make a good faith effort. Nothing more.

[billisonboard]

This is another of those classic "can't win" situations for government in the US. It is like child protective services. The government is wrong to interfere with a parent until the exact moment that they should have stepped in to protect a child. The government is wrong to ask for this information until someone with a fradulently obtained US passport does something and then the government will be taken to task for not doing a better job of checking to make sure the person should have received the passport.

[straydog]

Apr 3, 2011 11:38:00 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

I don't think a CITIZEN should have to provide any information our GUESTS aren't asked to provide. More government bullsh**. I'm seriously considering a different citizenship.

If you, or anyone else here wants to be a PT (Perpetual Traveler), then these websites can give you information about it. I have no affiliation with any of them, and I cannot vouch for the services and other products that they sell, so buyer beware.

Http://www.byebyebigbrother.com

www.escapeartist.com

www.sovereignsociety.com

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It's a PASSPORT! Not a visa.

[Deleted]

Are you really going to ignore the fact that those questions are only for people not born in a hospital and whose birth was not filed within a year?