Long form birth certificate!

because my passport had been expired beyond the allowed limit.

I remember that the questions they asked were quite alarming - like what elementary school I went to and what street I lived on when I was a child ... many more questions like that.

Getting a passport needs lots of documentation to ensure that you are indeed a US citizen. A forger wouldn't know about your childhood. What's disturbing is that they have such information already.

Internet account security questions.

There are no questions like "What was the name of your first pet." I found that I had never used most of those questions on security for websites - such as in what hospital were you born. I think that there are lots of people who may not know that.

I do know that I too found it kind of disturbing.
I don't expect anything about me to be private any more.
Sometimes I question the validity of HIPPA - I'm sure the government has ways to get around that.
(putting my tinfoil hat back in the closet now)

Not an American one, anyway

Yes, I have an American passport.
I wish I had written them down but definitely remember commenting about them to my husband.

New passport application: https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11_pdf.PDF

The questionnaire I filled out was online.

Maybe it wasn't for a passport renewal?
I can't think of what else it could have been for.
I definitely do remember that I was shocked at the questions.

Now this is going to bug me forever.

your own security questions for signing in to a site -- the answers to those questions would be fill in the blank and based on the answers you provided at an earlier time.

Or the questions could have been identity verification, but identity verification services don't ask about your childhood - the questions would be based on what financial institutions know about you: past/present cars, addresses, bank relationships--and the questions are multiple choice.

I assume it was not a scam/phishing site since you completed whatever it was that you were applying for without incident.

Planes of existence were your parents spawned ?!?
🤔




✌🏻

name. I know not birthplace or date. I got one last year there was nothing to it other than a birth certificate

I got my first one at age 16, so I have only had renewals.

I can understand the thoroughness these days. With people researching obscure stuff about ourselves that we might not even know, identity theft has become an issue where forty years ago, we didn’t even have an expression for it. Now, it’s not an unrealistic scenario to apply for a passport, and then get a visit from the FBI accusing you of identity theft, because someone else beat you to it, and is now walking around with what should be your passport. No one would ever know unless the real you applied.

With my first granddaughter, it was really crazy. My daughter had to prove that she had lived in the USA for seven years even though she had been an American citizen from birth, and she had to get original transcripts from schools she attended. No copies. This meant bugging schools in Hawai’i, Washington, DC and New York. What took me two hours at the American Embassy in Germany in 1985 for her birth certificate and first passport, took my daughter eleven months in 2018. She got it done, but what a performance!

And don’t even ask about the hoops I had to jump through in order to get my (still current!) passport renewed in 2020, the first year of Covid-19. From Boston to Dallas to Washington to Frankfurt (Frankfurt finally got it done—the 12 month backlog that Washington had claimed turned out to be ten days).

I don’t think I’m gonna get a new one either. Never should have let it expire. Dang it.

Mine was for an expired passport.

It expired during Covid.

It was easy.
Download the form.
fill it out.
Go to CVS to get photo
Make an Appt at the post office, they go over it and take your money.
I used my old passport for photo ID.

about 3 weeks later it came in the mail.

Parents birthdates and where they were born.
My problem was remembering when I was divorced...40 years ago, Luckily, I found the papers the last place I looked.

You can take your time getting it done.

was easy. Last year I was going to renew but there was no in-person option. They wanted my old passport, photo and form mailed. The form, for some reason, defeated me and I put it aside.

This T’giving figured I better get on it before chaos of new admin, and my cousin wants me to visit (Switzerland.). Had misplaced my old one, expired maybe 3 yrs ago, so decided to apply for a new one so I could do it in person, have my hand held, and do it right.

Made an appt at my local post office for the next Monday, Dec 2 - easy! Last year they weren’t allowing that option since it wasn’t expired enough and I had physical possession it.

Needed to fill out the online app to bring with. Since it had been expired less than 5 years I needed to report it, then the problems started. So I lied and said it had expired more than 5 years ago. Yay! Easy again!

Next lie:

They asked parents info at the time of birth. Easy. Then, were they citizens? This was on the at-time-of-birth line. Well no, they weren’t, and given the new incoming admin I got unnecessarily paranoid and decided to say ‘yes’ since they later became citizens. I’m 74 and had my 1st passport at 16 and seemed like a safe, if unnecessary, lie. But these being weird times …

Did not pay for expedited because at the post office they said I should get it later in January. Good enough.

Imagine my surprise when I got tracking information saying passport book + card were approved, being printed, and to expect them Dec 23! Next day an updated tracking notice said to expect them Dec 24th!

Three weeks!

Someplace online? If so, stop. Only apply at official government agencies. There are people advertising that you can apply with them. If ".gov" is not in the url, don't give information. They're phishing.

The whole family are going to apply.

Photos tomorrow at Walgreens so we have them.

First time is harder.

Filling out the form this morning was high tension. I’ve read the instructions but to clarify we take the birth certificates AND a photo copy, correct?

We have to show the actual document.

Mail you back originals after they mail passports.
Just did this a few days ago for whole family.

One check to US dept of state 130.00
Credit/debit/check to post office for 35.00 fee
Expedite is another 60.00 on State dept check if you want it faster.

That will let you keep the license.

When I moved to Germany, and had to get a German accountant to do my German taxes, I referred them to my American accountant in Dallas for all the income info I didn't know off the top of my head. The Dallas accountants would, because they had done my U.S. tax returns all along.

So, the Germans accountants contacted the Dallas accountant, and Dallas came back to me, rathr alarmed, asking me to sign a special waiver. I asked why, and they said the Germans were asking things that would cause them to lose their licenses and risk fines or even jail if they revealed them to third parties.

The Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei)

The State Security Ministry (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit)

Old habits die hard. German cities still all have an "Ordnungsamt," a "bureau for order." Their order, of course.

...have everything ready. Including copies of High School year book pictures.

They will want everything and I mean everything. My wife's father was born in Persia which is present day Iran, we had to get a lot of documents together in a very short amount of time. And they were holding up my passport as hostage, I was born here in the USA, as were my parents, but it doesn't help all my family came from Russia. Irony, one cousin of mine won a few medals for the USA in the Olympics. And still...

To the best of your knowledge.

Go on line to usps they have a link to do the form on line...you will need a copy and the original birth certificate and a copy of your driver's license, front and back, when you go in to sign the form in front of them.