Of course, you already have to provide place of birth (and if you don't have a previous passport, a birth certificate or naturalization certificate--and you need a birth certificate for the latter--which would typically contain your address of birth), and names of parents and places of parents' birth.
I'm really lucky that my parents have maintained up-to-date passports for me basically since birth (since most of my dad's family does not live in this country), because without that I don't know how I would have ever gotten a driver's license, let alone renewed my passport the one time I've had to as an adult. None of what they currently ask for seems outright unreasonable to me, but that doesn't mean I have--or even have access to--all of it, either. But I get through a lot of hoops for free just by having an old passport.
At the same time, although annoying, inappropriately intrusive, and somewhat irrelevant to the passport document (and for those second two reasons, I don't think they should require it), most of this new stuff you list actually sounds easier to get than what's already required. I mean, do you know how hard it is to get a birth certificate if they won't accept a photocopy? I know it's hard enough that I've never actually seen my birth certificate.
And then there's the information they wanted for my dad's Israeli passport renewal. Which he flat-out refused to get, as it would have required a couple plane trips galavanting around the East Coast (my dad lives on the West Coast), and also would have caused a huge amount of trouble for the entire rest of the family. But they'd already printed my dad's passport, so they just made a note in his file to ask him for that stuff next time he renews. He's hoping they'll have lost that note in 10 years and he won't need it next time, either.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-04-24 06:26 pm (UTC)I'm really lucky that my parents have maintained up-to-date passports for me basically since birth (since most of my dad's family does not live in this country), because without that I don't know how I would have ever gotten a driver's license, let alone renewed my passport the one time I've had to as an adult. None of what they currently ask for seems outright unreasonable to me, but that doesn't mean I have--or even have access to--all of it, either. But I get through a lot of hoops for free just by having an old passport.
At the same time, although annoying, inappropriately intrusive, and somewhat irrelevant to the passport document (and for those second two reasons, I don't think they should require it), most of this new stuff you list actually sounds easier to get than what's already required. I mean, do you know how hard it is to get a birth certificate if they won't accept a photocopy? I know it's hard enough that I've never actually seen my birth certificate.
And then there's the information they wanted for my dad's Israeli passport renewal. Which he flat-out refused to get, as it would have required a couple plane trips galavanting around the East Coast (my dad lives on the West Coast), and also would have caused a huge amount of trouble for the entire rest of the family. But they'd already printed my dad's passport, so they just made a note in his file to ask him for that stuff next time he renews. He's hoping they'll have lost that note in 10 years and he won't need it next time, either.