
Want a passport? State Department wants your life story. - HedgeMage
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/25/state-department-wants-passport-applicants-to-reveal-lifetime-employment-history/
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noonespecial
Making it hard to for others to enter the US is a just a nuisance. Making it
hard for US citizens to _leave_ the US is one of the most terrifying things I
can think of.

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jonhinson
You lack imagination.

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noonespecial
I'm having no trouble imagining all of the wonderful reasons the government
might have for preventing Americans and their money from escaping it's
borders. And all of the things that come after that. I suppose I can think of
worse, but I'm afraid because we already know what happens when countries slam
the door on their citizens and allow only the annointed to travel. It's never
ever anything but reactor-grade awful.

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miked
While I believe Obama was born in the US, it's interesting that you can become
President of the US without having to show a birth certificate, but you can't
leave the country without producing one. Doubly interesting because the
Constitution specifically requires the President to be US-born, but says
nothing about passports.

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mixmastamyk
Well, you can walk right out the door to Mexico, if one were so inclined.

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steevdave
Glad I got mine recently. I was freaked out by the fact that when I handed
them my birth certificate, they didn't hand it back. "It will be returned to
you by mail" they said; I'm not sure _why_ they needed to keep the birth
certificate, but it did in fact come back to me. (I was more freaked out over
the fact that I had paid 50 dollars for the birth certificate and didn't want
to lose it (plus dropping another 220 to get the passport rushed))

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peterbraden
I'm a US citizen, with a US birth certificate, but to apply for a social
security number I had to provide proof of address for every year of my life.
The process took a year.

It's in the nature of bureaucracies to accumulate information, the larger and
more inefficient, the more paperwork they demand to fulfill their 'process'.

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indrax
> _when the applicant submits citizenship or identity evidence that is
> insufficient or of questionable authenticity_

So the vast majority can stick with driver's license and birth certificate. I
think this is overblown.

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drallison
It looks to be a typically outrageous limitation introduced without much
thought or reason.

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chadp
I can't understand why people would actually want a US passport.

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noonespecial
That would be because they are already in the US and they'd like to go
somewhere besides the US. The importance of the freedom to actually _leave_ a
county when you so desire can't be overestated.

