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I GOT MY PASSPORT!! :)
I don't remember if I've told you guys the story, but after I sent off for my passport (in early January) I got a letter from the Department of State saying they needed more information from me: stuff from where I was baptized to yearbook photos, medical records, etc.
It ended up being around 70 pages:
The letter they sent (had my account number, etc so they said send it
with it), the four page form plus an additional sheet, old birth
certificate (short form and damaged so I couldn't use it the first
time), two immunization records (1992 from NJ and 1998 from SC), three
standardized test results, first grade report card, a bus conduct report
from 1998, high school diploma, college ID, social security card, W-2,
and photo copied pages from the yearbooks from 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th,
11th, and 12th grades plus freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years
of college. That's forty-one pages of yearbook photocopies alone!
Whew!
Today I got my passport!! So excited! One BIG HUGE check mark off the list!
One step closer to India!
Yayyyy!
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." -Isaiah 61:10 NKJV
Re: I GOT MY PASSPORT!! :)
I was wondering the same thing. I have never heard of a natural born citizen having to send all this stuff in for a passport.
Also I never heard of the short form/ long form of birth certificates before I moved to the UK do all states have these? Am I just out of the loop?
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That is a lot of stuff to need. I didn't even need that much for my kids. Their dad was in Mexico and could not sign in person. But wow. Congrats!
This is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard. While I am happy you got your passport I am incredibly skeptical that they wanted yearbook pictures and medical records, amongst other things.
And I have also never heard of short/long form birth certificates outside of the UK either, but I am only familiar with Illinois and Georgia so who knows.
Edit: Where you were baptized?? Since there is a separation of Church and State I can not begin to imagine a situation where this information is not only pertinent but legal to ask for. Sorry, none of this adds up for me.
I only have one (born in OH). What is a short form/long form birth certificate?
In the UK they, for some reason, have 2 kinds of birth certificates, a short form and a long form. The long form has more info on it, and that is the only one we have ever been able to use for anything legal, so I have no idea why there is a short one!
Great that you got our passport, but holy smokes that's an insane amount of info they needed. I e also never heard of such a thing. Especially for someone born and raised in the US.
At least getting your Indian visa won't be so hard. So long as you can pay the fee, it's easy least to get a tourist visa.
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What, you have never been asked for your bus conduct report from 1988 for a passport before?
Congratulations on getting your passport. I agree with everyone else -- why would they need all that documentation?
I had only heard of long-form birth certificates in relation to Obama and the whole birth certificate scandal. I know Louisiana only has one form for birth certificates. I'd be in serious trouble if I needed one.
This. What in the world.....?
LMAO. I was just thinking the same thing. We filled out and had to submit less for my DH's greencard.
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Did you save this letter?
Maybe I'm being a complete alarmist, but I would take it to your local police station because this reeks of ID theft. I hope this is MUD.
So glad you got your passport, but I agree with elenextu, take that letter to the police if you still have it, someone might be/have been trying to steal your identity.
Usually you just provide ID and birth certificate, and if you don't have either, you can have an older family member (or anyone who's known you for 2+ years) fill out a form stating you're you and submit that in combination with a social security card and a credit card or phone bill. If you don't actually have a birth certificate you can use early public record,(baptismal cert, doctors notes, something like that, but you only need 1 of those.) but since your birth certificate does exist, that shouldn't be applicable to you. (according to travel.state.gov)
The fact that they asked you for so much stuff really seems completely wrong.
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<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DTo be honest, if I had to produce all that documentation, I'd be SOL. I, too, have never heard of anyone having to provide such documentation to get a passport, and neither has my DH (and we've been around the block a few times). What would cause the Department of State to require such proof?
OP, I'm glad you received your passport. I hope that this is an indication of things to come!
Uh that's really really weird?
Is this your first passport? Or is it a renewal? To be honest, I'd be concerned if the passport you go was even real. It sounds like someone got into your mail and then sent a fake letter to you from the Department of State with the intent to steal your identity.
Yearbook photos? From college? I don't even think I took yearbook photos for college? And a bus behaviour report? W T ?
The thing that screams identity theft to me is the copy of your SS card. I have never made a copy of my card since the day I got it when I was 8. I memorized the number, but I have NEVER been asked for a copy of the card. I don't remember giving my SSN for my passport, but I have a bad memory for things like that.
If I were you, I'd check into if I even have a real passport. I'd then bring that letter down to the police. I'd then start looking into seeing if loans, CCs, etc.have been opened in my name.
Good Luck to you.
Even my son didn't know his ss# yet to get his first passport, we applied for both at the same time.
Ryansbelovedbride, is it possible you oversent info and all they really wanted was a new birth certificate and some other stuff with your name on it? I am super skeptical they asked for your baptismal records since, um, not everyone in this Country is baptized or even Christian.
I have a feeling it is the above and beyond based on her blog entries about it.
Hey guys! I was at my sister's graduation yesterday all day so haven't gotten online since I posted this.
I basically had the EXACT SAME REACTION you guys had. I was furious.
A week and a half after I sent off my passport application, the Department of State sent me a letter saying they found what I'd included "not sufficient" to prove my identity. They included a form with the letter. One of the many questions on there was the baptized question. I was like "What the heck?? Not everyone is baptized! Not everyone is a Christian! How can the government put this on a form?"
Aside from the form, which was mainly every address I'd ever had, every job I've had, every school I've attended, etc, they asked for paperwork that traced me back to childhood. They wanted school records, medical records, and they put a great emphasis on the yearbook photos because they said "It's a photo idenfitification."
We (my mother and I) were pissed, my mom more than me. I think she took the fact that my identity was being challenged as a personal affront. She got on the phone with our senator and representatives. She's like a bulldog when she gets upset, so I was happy to let her at them. They have staff members who deal only with passports, so she talked to them. One of the unusual things was that where we live if you do a normal passport app. it usually gets sent to the Charleston passport office, and this was from the Atlanta one.
After some sleuthing (because you can't get a real person on the phone with the number they provided us) my Mom found the direct line to the Atlanta passport office and talked to them about my case. Apparently I was flagged because my passport and ID were both new in the past year. The birth certificate had to be new, because of the whole long form thing (which is a new law as of a year and a half ago, which is why you guys have never heard of it. A long form is simply the version which has your parents names on it. In NJ, which is where I was born, in the 1980s, they only gave you the short form. If your state only has one form, it's probably the long form.) My ID was new because well it just happened to be renewed recently.
So what they were looking for was especially early childhood records. I did probably go overboard in giving them stuff, but I wasn't going to be denied based on insufficient evidence again. I photocopied every yearbook page on which both my photo and name appeared in every yearbook I own (which happens to be 7th grade through college. Not all colleges have yearbooks, ours did). No one specified that I give a bus conduct report, but it was issued by the school, so it's a school record. They did say they wanted school records, medical information, and that the more diverse the information, the more likely to be approved.
Because we talked to our senator/representatives offices and the passport office itself about our case, no I never thought it was identify theft. I did however get really irritated about putting all that information in an envelope and was telling my mom if someone stole my identify because they took that envelope then the government was going to make it right, by golly. But they've returned my documents with my passport and the whole saga is behind me.
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." -Isaiah 61:10 NKJV
yea I can understand wanting to overwhelm them with proof just to make sure it goes through, I did that with my UK visa applications - they asked for photos of us together over the years, letters and envelopes and bills with both our names on it, anything with both our names really - I had a HUGE stack of proof, and was granted the visa on the spot
when you say you got 2 forms of id in 1 year - is that a drivers license and a passport? or do you mean SS#?
anyhow - congrats on being done with it all