We don’t have a national ID, which is part of the issue. As a result, regular identification is by state depts (motor vehicles).
It also means for passports, you need to either fill out the form and mail it in, or visit a State Dept office for some expedited options (requires specific reasons to do so, requires an appointment).
In recent years, the Postmaster General has royally screwed the post office (that’s a whole separate thing, so I won’t go into that here. Short answer, Trump). So it runs pretty inefficiently, and that’s the main way that people are getting passports.
You forgot the primary reason is Republicans voting against anything that encourages budget increases or improves efficient processes for government agencies.
Social security is not identification though. We can’t call it that because its a crap ID. Closer would be RealID, but that’s still reliant on the state.
So I’d disagree saying SS is a national ID, its a number not identification.
My understanding is most other countries (and our credit card #'s) have …self-identifying? …some spiffy numbers built into them that cryptographically verify that they’re not fakes, whereas the US’s SSN is pretty much just an incremental number assignation and has zero additional info built into it.
Like I know sisters that have sequential SSN’s because there was a snafu and they got assigned them at the same time, rather than when they each were born.
Of course, I’m entirely against the whole fucking idea of giving people a fucking barcode at all, but that’s an idealogical argument for another time
I mean… that IS how you get a passport. Just replace “police station” with “post office”.
The issue is that the US is comparable in size to the EU. Even excluding the flyover states, people can spend an entire lifetime just going on domestic trips for holidays and the like.
So the vast majority of Americans see no need for a passport until they have booked their dream trip and realize that France is a different country. Hence the mad rush and expedited processing and so forth.
I personally make life more inconvenient for myself because I refuse to deal with booking time for photos at a post office or pay a pharmacy to do it for me so I end up spending ten minutes in gimp formatting things every N years. But that is very much a stupid me thing.
and only four walk-ins a day on certain days of which people show up an hour before the post office opens to try and get one of those spots, then they sit in camper chairs until about 3pm to be seen. and they mail you the passport so you cant just pick it up at the post office. you could also go through a third party to get you a reservation sooner than 6months somehow, they also redo all your paperwork to justify paying them I guess but that quick reservation is the key
That’s how it has been in the US. Now, though, if you already have a passport, you can renew online and take the picture yourself, and get it mailed directly to you.
The thing that makes getting a passport slightly tricky to begin with in some circumstances is needing proper ID. In the US, there’s no generalized law saying that you have to have certain forms of ID. Most people use drivers licenses as ID, but obviously not everyone has one (by choice or as a consequence of drunk driving). There are a lot of people without ID, and there are ways to get ID, but they can be difficult for people without resources. A birth certificate is hard to get if you don’t have one already, especially if you don’t know where you were born.
Most states (maybe even all of them by now) offer a non-driver ID, which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license, but isn’t valid for driving.
All that ID does is prove residence, though, it doesn’t prove citizenship. Most first-time applicants will also have to submit a birth certificate or other document proving citizenship. The USA has no other national document that proves citizenship. This service is for passport renewals, presumably the first time you apply for a passport you will still need to show up in person, with your documents.
It can be hit or miss with some particularly stupid government workers, but Passport Cards are very much a thing and qualify as Real ID Compliant.
As a passport it is only valid for like Canada and Mexico but it is well worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks when you get a passport. On travel it is a nice ID that you don’t REALLY care if it gets stolen (since your Driver’s License is back at the hotel). Also incredibly useful when you need multiple forms of ID for something.
But also would not be a horrible choice as a non-driver ID. Just a hassle to get one without a Driver’s License because 'murica.
which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license
Only as valid as the government worker thinks it is. I had one of those and the passport office wouldn’t accept it as proof of identity. I wound up having to get a parent with a driver’s license to vouch for me, in addition to providing a ton of extra id like library card, school ids, etc.
If you need a passport super short notice (possibly same-day) you can go to one of a few passport offices and hope they can fit you in. I looked into it a few years ago when I lost my passport right before a big business trip. Logistically it wouldn’t have worked for me (by the time I even got to the Boston office on that Monday my flight would have left), but yeah. Found my passport a few days later, tucked into a notebook.
It was similar to that when I got my new passport early this year. Filled out a form online, printed it off, went to the post office, got my Pic taken there, gave them a check and two weeks later my new passport was mailed to me.
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We don’t have a national ID, which is part of the issue. As a result, regular identification is by state depts (motor vehicles).
It also means for passports, you need to either fill out the form and mail it in, or visit a State Dept office for some expedited options (requires specific reasons to do so, requires an appointment).
In recent years, the Postmaster General has royally screwed the post office (that’s a whole separate thing, so I won’t go into that here. Short answer, Trump). So it runs pretty inefficiently, and that’s the main way that people are getting passports.
So… Several reasons why.
You forgot the primary reason is Republicans voting against anything that encourages budget increases or improves efficient processes for government agencies.
We have a national ID. It’s terribly insecure and we can’t call it that because fucking conservatives.
Social security is not identification though. We can’t call it that because its a crap ID. Closer would be RealID, but that’s still reliant on the state.
So I’d disagree saying SS is a national ID, its a number not identification.
That point is addressed tenfold in the video
I don’t youtube.
My understanding is most other countries (and our credit card #'s) have …self-identifying? …some spiffy numbers built into them that cryptographically verify that they’re not fakes, whereas the US’s SSN is pretty much just an incremental number assignation and has zero additional info built into it.
Like I know sisters that have sequential SSN’s because there was a snafu and they got assigned them at the same time, rather than when they each were born.
Of course, I’m entirely against the whole fucking idea of giving people a fucking barcode at all, but that’s an idealogical argument for another time
I’m not sure you watched the video you linked
I mean… that IS how you get a passport. Just replace “police station” with “post office”.
The issue is that the US is comparable in size to the EU. Even excluding the flyover states, people can spend an entire lifetime just going on domestic trips for holidays and the like.
So the vast majority of Americans see no need for a passport until they have booked their dream trip and realize that France is a different country. Hence the mad rush and expedited processing and so forth.
I personally make life more inconvenient for myself because I refuse to deal with booking time for photos at a post office or pay a pharmacy to do it for me so I end up spending ten minutes in gimp formatting things every N years. But that is very much a stupid me thing.
You cannot walk into a post office and leave with a passport
It’s about 11 weeks now.
and only four walk-ins a day on certain days of which people show up an hour before the post office opens to try and get one of those spots, then they sit in camper chairs until about 3pm to be seen. and they mail you the passport so you cant just pick it up at the post office. you could also go through a third party to get you a reservation sooner than 6months somehow, they also redo all your paperwork to justify paying them I guess but that quick reservation is the key
That’s how it has been in the US. Now, though, if you already have a passport, you can renew online and take the picture yourself, and get it mailed directly to you.
The thing that makes getting a passport slightly tricky to begin with in some circumstances is needing proper ID. In the US, there’s no generalized law saying that you have to have certain forms of ID. Most people use drivers licenses as ID, but obviously not everyone has one (by choice or as a consequence of drunk driving). There are a lot of people without ID, and there are ways to get ID, but they can be difficult for people without resources. A birth certificate is hard to get if you don’t have one already, especially if you don’t know where you were born.
Most states (maybe even all of them by now) offer a non-driver ID, which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license, but isn’t valid for driving.
All that ID does is prove residence, though, it doesn’t prove citizenship. Most first-time applicants will also have to submit a birth certificate or other document proving citizenship. The USA has no other national document that proves citizenship. This service is for passport renewals, presumably the first time you apply for a passport you will still need to show up in person, with your documents.
It can be hit or miss with some particularly stupid government workers, but Passport Cards are very much a thing and qualify as Real ID Compliant.
As a passport it is only valid for like Canada and Mexico but it is well worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks when you get a passport. On travel it is a nice ID that you don’t REALLY care if it gets stolen (since your Driver’s License is back at the hotel). Also incredibly useful when you need multiple forms of ID for something.
But also would not be a horrible choice as a non-driver ID. Just a hassle to get one without a Driver’s License because 'murica.
Only as valid as the government worker thinks it is. I had one of those and the passport office wouldn’t accept it as proof of identity. I wound up having to get a parent with a driver’s license to vouch for me, in addition to providing a ton of extra id like library card, school ids, etc.
You cannot walk into a post office and leave with a passport
That’s exactly how you do it. It’s not same-day, but if you really need a passport same day, you probably messed something up, lol.
If you need a passport super short notice (possibly same-day) you can go to one of a few passport offices and hope they can fit you in. I looked into it a few years ago when I lost my passport right before a big business trip. Logistically it wouldn’t have worked for me (by the time I even got to the Boston office on that Monday my flight would have left), but yeah. Found my passport a few days later, tucked into a notebook.
“Needing to go to the fucking police station” is arguably way more difficult than the US process.
It was similar to that when I got my new passport early this year. Filled out a form online, printed it off, went to the post office, got my Pic taken there, gave them a check and two weeks later my new passport was mailed to me.