Job Discussion Forums

[Old Surrender]

I applied for a passport in May. Last week, the State Department sent me a letter asking for A) five forms of ID, B) all of the addresses I've lived at and C) every job I've held in order to "further verify my indentity."

Here's the kicker: I've lived at 20 addresses in my 27 years of existence. That's what happens when you're a military brat with a mother who got divorced twice.

Amazingly enough, I've gathered 18 of them.

Without delving too much into my life story, missing address #1 was a house that my mother, step-dad and I lived at for less than a year. My mother doesn't remember the address and I was 3 years old when we lived there. The other is a sublet I had for a summer in college. I remember this much of the address: 12XX Main St., Anytown, CA, 00000.

Has anyone here dealt with this? How accurate do I have to be to convince the State Department I'm not trying to steal some poor sap's identity?

Sorry about the long-ish post.

[spiral78]

I had to do a similar thing a few years back for a security clearance. In addition to all the addresses, I had to list every country I'd ever visited - it was a real memory challenge:) I got up to 38

I had a couple of small holes in my address info as you do. It didn't seem to be a problem - got the clearance.

[naturegirl321]

FIVE forms of ID? Why? Is this a new rule?

I say, put as many as you can, and put as much info about the rest of them.

[Old Surrender]

That's reasurring. I got the sublet address. I'm hoping 19 out of 20 will pass muster.

I don't think it's a new rule for EVERYONE. I wonder if this is a random check (like they do for airport screenings) or if someone else applied for a passport using my info. Scary thought.

The letter said items like a yearbook or a traffic ticket can be used at proof of my identity, so it won't be too challenging. I plan on using my DL, Press Pass, SS card, and couple college IDs.

On the bright side, it was kind of fun going down memory lane with my mother and friends from college.

[SandyG20]

Do you have a name that a lot of other people also have?

[Old Surrender]

[80daze]

I've heard that the UK will start doing the same thing next year for the new ID cards and passports that they issue. Which means I'll be going through the same thing as you when I need my next passport. Sadly I think it's just the age we now live in. Sad

[dragon777]

Just give them what they deserve and ask!

[johnnyappleseed]

I had the same thing happen to me when I applied for my passport in '03.' I put down as many addresses as possible and sent them a lot of other things beside. Including report cards from high school, a page of a high school yearbook and some old W-2 forms. University transcripts...some old rental forms that I mysteriously had held onto...

Not nearly what they asked for as that was impossible and to be honest, some of the addresses I had lived in...I simply didn't remember the addresses.

It was very stressful. I guess there are some people that are just randomly singled out, or maybe red flagged for some other reason(what that might be I have no idea as I had not even got a parking ticket for fifteen years at the time, and my most serious criminal offense was driving with an expired license plate.

No, I expect I just randomly got picked.

Anyw
Finally I sent theay, I sent them as much as I could gather in a manila envelope and then waited. I called to the passport agency(in Seattle) almost every day and couldn't get any information. They told me I was to get a form from the social security office and I went back and forth between two offices in the town I was living in(Denver). It was very frustrating,as neither social security office would give this mysterious form(I want to say 'fixodent' form, but obviously that was not it, but I think it ended with 'dent'.)m an angry e-mail implying that I would sue if I didn't get the passport...and it was delivered to my doorstep two days later.