Shortcomings of U.S. Passport-Application Forms (201332016)

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Between 1789 and 1941, use of passports, under United States law, by United States citizens, to leave or enter the United States, was mandatory only during the War Between the States (1861-1865) and in relation to World War I (1914-1921). The contemporary era of mandatory passport use, under United States law, by United States citizens, began on November 29, 1941.The State Department claims that issued passports are owned by the United States, not by passport holders. No statute authorized the State Department to promulgate the passport-ownership regulation.There is a set of three State Department regulations, with multiple elements, according to which passport applications may be denied, and issued passports may be revoked, based on one or another personal circumstance. Some of those regulatory elements (such as the personal circumstance of an arrearage on child-support payments in excess of $2,500) are authorized by statutes, and, so, are lawful. Most regulatory elements (such as the personal circumstance being the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for a felony) are not authorized by statutes, and, so, are unlawful.With or without statutory authority, mission creep is undesirable. It is mission creep to deny a passport application on a ground other than inability to prove identity and other than inability to prove citizenship. Equally, it is mission creep to revoke a passport on a ground other than loss of citizenship.Under the Privacy Act, a collection of personal information, by a United States agency, is limited to that which is “relevant and necessary” to a mission of an agency. Here, the agency is the State Department, and the mission is passport issuance.Form DS-11 (09-2013), Application For a U.S. Passport, has 21 questions. Many of them are not relevant and necessary for passport issuance.Form DS-82 (08-2013), U.S. Passport Renewal Application For Eligible Individuals, has 20 questions. Many of them are not relevant and necessary for passport issuance.Answers to excessive questions turn filed Forms DS-11 and filed Forms DS-82 into dossiers about passport applicants. Dossiers are maintained illegally, by the State Department, on millions of Americans.See also:Passports in the Twenty-First Century (2012). URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1458092