The Department of State is considering creating a new passport form, and the public comment period on the proposal ends Tuesday, April 26th.

According to San Antonio’s Ken5.com, the new form, which would be called DS-5513, is a biographical questionnaire that the Department of State would send out whenever a passport applicant “submits citizenship or identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity.”

In other words, if you have a delayed birth certificate filed more than one year after you were born, or you were born at home with a midwife instead of in a hospital, you would probably need to fill out DS-5513. Take a look at a copy of the proposed form here (PDF). As you can see, it’s very detailed.

Sample questions for people born at home or with delayed birth certificates include:

  • Whether there was a circumcision or other religious ceremony to mark your birth, and if so, who participated.
  • Your mother’s addresses from year before through one year after you were born.
  • When and where she received pre- or post-natal care.

Even if you were born in a hospital and your birth certificate was filed in a timely manner, the government may ask you to complete this form to provide biographical information for all the relatives in your immediate family, as well as the address of every single place you’ve ever lived and worked. The Department of State expects the new form to apply to about 74,000 applicants each year.

Of course, many people simply won’t have all of this information. I doubt my mother even remembers the dates of her prenatal appointments, and I surely don’t remember every single address I’ve ever lived at since birth. What’s not clear is whether or not all of this information will be required in order for the State Department to issue a passport to you if they have questions about your birth certificate, or whether they just want you to get as much information as you can and submit it along with the secondary evidence of US citizenship that they already ask for under those circumstances.

The public comment period on the new form ends Tuesday the 26th. If you’d like to submit a comment, go to the Federal Register website for instructions. After the 26th, the State Department will consider the comments it has received and make a decision. We’ll keep you informed as we learn more about this potential new procedure.

This questionnaire is a good example of the kinds of unexpected occurrences that can hold up an application for a new passport. At RushMyPassport, we can’t stop the Department of State from requesting additional information before they’ll give you a passport, but we can help walk you through the process so that any roadblocks get taken care of as soon as possible.

Need a new passport? Contact us today!