![]() ![]() We can’t see any reason not to make this form available online with all the rest of the passport forms, much less not to have it available at passport offices, other than to hide its existence and discourage its use. Elsewhere on the State Department site, the link for Form DS-71 in the index of passport forms links to a PDF of an otherwise-blank page that says, “Please visit your local Acceptance Facility to obtain this form.”ĭisturbingly, we’ve received reports from people who went to the State Department’s own passport offices, accompanied by witnesses prepared to identify them, and were told that no current version of Form DS-71 was actually available. But it seems like the State Department doesn’t really respect this right, and prefers to get all applicants to provide papers, rather than people, to “prove” who we are.Īs of today, the version of Form DS-71 posted on the State Department’s website is an obsolete one whose use was approved by the Office of Management and Budget only until Dec. § 51.28 entitle applicants for US passports to establish their identity by the affidavit of an identifying witness, in lieu of documentary evidence of identity. Many US government agencies, however, seems to want to make government-issued ID credentials the only way to establish who we are - even when Federal regulations require them to accept other forms of evidence of identity.Ĭase in point: Department of State Form DS-71: “Affidavit of Identifying Witness” for passport applicants.Īs we’ve noted previously, the State Department’s own regulations at 22 C.F.R. ![]() ![]() We have better ways of recognizing who they are. We don’t normally require our friends and family to show us their papers to establish their identities. ![]()
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