Buried in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (“FAST Act”) signed into law last week is an unrelated rider to provide for revocation of the passport and/or refusal to issue a passport to anyone against whom the IRS has assessed a lien or levy for $50,000 or more in tax debt, or who doesn’t provide […]
A Yemeni-American U.S. citizen sued the U.S. State Department today, asking a federal court in Michigan, where he lives, to order the State Department to issue him a U.S. passport. Ahmed Nagi was naturalized as a U.S. citizen twenty years ago. In May of 2013, after his previous U.S. passport expired, Mr. Nagi applied to […]
Imagine that you are a US citizen living or traveling abroad. Imagine that you go to the US Embassy to avail yourself of its “Consular Services” as a US citizen. Then imagine that embassy staff confiscate your US passport. That’s what’s been happening to many, perhaps most, Yemeni-American US citizens who make the unwitting mistake […]
After a year-long “review”, the White House on August 12, 2013, approved the State Department’s proposed new “long form” questionnaires for some (unspecified) subset of applicants for US passports: Form DS-5513, “Supplemental Questionnaire to Determine Entitlement for a U.S. Passport”: Form DS-5513 as approved (OMB Control Number 1405-0216) Supporting Documents for Form DS-5513 (click on […]
The new U.S. passport application forms are back, worse than ever. Ignoring massive public opposition, and despite having recently admitted that it is already using the “proposed” forms illegally without approval, the State Department is trying again to get approval for a pair of impossible-to-complete new passport application forms that would, in effect, allow the […]
On February 2, 2012, the State Department published a final rule in the Federal Register setting fees for issuance and renewal of U.S. passports and related consular services. Contrary to some press reports, this rule didn’t actually increase the current fees. It merely “finalizes” the fee increases that have already been in effect for the […]
In a new twist on the control of movement through control of issuance of ID credentials, the Associated Press reports that a U.S. citizen has been trapped in Kuwait after the local U.S. Embassy summarily confiscated his passport: Aziz Nouhaili, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Morocco, has been trying for nearly four months to get […]
Several readers (among the thousands who submitted comments) have forwarded copies of the email message the State Department is sending as an auto-response to all mail to the point of contact for their proposed new “Biographical Questionnaire” for passport applicants, Form DS-5513. For your entertainment, and so we won’t be accused of quoting out of […]
The most frequently asked question in the ongoing discussion about the State Department’s proposed new “Biographical Questionnaire” for (some) passport applicants has been, “Is this a hoax?” We wish this were a joke, but it’s for real. The proposed Form DS-5513 that we published is the one we and others who requested it received from […]
Back in March, the State Department published a notice in the Federal Register that they were proposing a new “Biographical Questionnaire” for (some) passport applicants. But the notice didn’t include the proposed form itself. Curious, and concerned, we requested a copy of the proposed form from the State Department contact person listed in the Federal […]