Were You Circumcised? New Passport Questionnaire Baffles Many With Absurd Info Demands

 by  Jonathon M. Seidl
Who was present when you were born? Can you remember every address you’ve ever had? How about every place you’ve ever worked? Were you circumcised?
What if I told you that those were some of the queries the State Department is proposing for a new “biographical questionnaire” as part of the passport application?
Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? It’s true. Take a look:

According to BoingBoing, the form is meant for those who, while applying for a passport, can’t produce a birth certificate. “But as the FA suggests,” the site notes, “the circumstances in which people unable to provide a birth certificate will be given this form (rather than the traditional bureaucratic investigation) are not spelled out; further, the form itself remains a Kafkaesque impossibility for most people to complete.”
Consumertraveler.com notes the near impossibility of the proposed application, too:

The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.

“It’s not clear from the supporting statement, statement of legal authorities, or regulatory assessment submitted by the State Department to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) why declining to discuss one’s siblings or to provide the phone number of your first supervisor when you were a teenager working at McDonalds would be a legitimate basis for denial of a passport to a U.S. citizen,” that site goes on to say.
 Were You Circumcised? New Passport Questionnaire Baffles Many With Absurd Info Demands http://t.co/abxTkZN via @theblaze