Addressing Significant Vulnerabilities in the Department of State's Passport Issuance Process
Addressing Significant Vulnerabilities in the Department of State's Passport Issuance Process

Author: Jess T. Ford

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 9

ISBN-13: 1437915078

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A genuine U.S. passport is a vital document, permitting its owner to travel freely into and out of the United States, prove U.S. citizenship, obtain further identification documents, and set up bank accounts, among other things. Since May 2005, there have been several reports identifying significant fraud vulnerabilities in the passport issuance process. This report: (1) describes recent work on passport fraud; and (2) summarizes actions the Department of State has indicated it is taking to address the fraud vulnerabilities that have been identified.

The Passport in America
The Passport in America

Author: Craig Robertson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-07-02

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0199779899

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In today's world of constant identification checks, it's difficult to recall that there was ever a time when "proof of identity" was not a part of everyday life. And as anyone knows who has ever lost a passport, or let one expire on the eve of international travel, the passport has become an indispensable document. But how and why did this form of identification take on such a crucial role? In the first history of the passport in the United States, Craig Robertson offers an illuminating account of how this document, above all others, came to be considered a reliable answer to the question: who are you? Historically, the passport originated as an official letter of introduction addressed to foreign governments on behalf of American travelers, but as Robertson shows, it became entangled in contemporary negotiations over citizenship and other forms of identity documentation. Prior to World War I, passports were not required to cross American borders, and while some people struggled to understand how a passport could accurately identify a person, others took advantage of this new document to advance claims for citizenship. From the strategic use of passport applications by freed slaves and a campaign to allow married women to get passports in their maiden names, to the "passport nuisance" of the 1920s and the contested addition of photographs and other identification technologies on the passport, Robertson sheds new light on issues of individual and national identity in modern U.S. history. In this age of heightened security, especially at international borders, Robertson's The Passport in America provides anyone interested in questions of identification and surveillance with a richly detailed, and often surprising, history of this uniquely important document.

Every Assistance & Protection
Every Assistance & Protection

Author: Jane Doulman

Publisher: Federation Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9781862876873

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Every Assistance and Protection is the first book presenting an in-depth history of the Australian passport. In charting the development of the passport from its early beginnings to its present form, the book traverses changes in government policy and social history from the early 19th century to the modern era. It shows how the Australian passport evolved from a signifier of British nationality into a badge of membership of one of the most multicultural countries in the world. The book explores the landmark events in this history:the great 19th century diasporas, resulting from relaxation of official controls on the movement of people; the early passport regime regulating the movement of "ticket-of-leave" convicts; the establishment of the centralised passport system during World War I; the enactment of the first passport legislation for the Commonwealth, The Passports Act 1920, and the reaction of some Australians who felt the new law infringed the liberties of the British subject; changes to the laws in 1938 such that possession of a passport was no longer mandatory for an Australian to travel, though still a practical necessity; the use of the government's discretionary power to cancel or withhold passports to inhibit the movement of individual communists; the establishment of Australian citizenship in 1948 - the basis for possession of an Australian passport; the removal of the word "British" from the cover in 1967; the effects of globalisation and heightened security in the late 20th and early 21st century. It also touches on the lives of individuals: boxer Les Darcy, journalist Wilfred Burchett, and General Sir Thomas Blamey, are among the many Australians featuring in these pages. The book is based on an exhaustive examination of hitherto unexamined primary sources of many government departments, including the Departments of External Affairs, the Prime Minister's, the Attorney-General's, Defence, Home and Territories, Immigration and Foreign Affairs. Sponsored by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade