SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
Affidavit of
Identifying Witness
OMB Number 1405- 0088
DS-0071
The Affidavit of Identifying Witness (DS-0071) is used in
conjunction with the Application for U.S. Passport (DS-0011). It is
used by Passport Agents, Passport Acceptance Agents, and Consular
Officers of the Department of State to collect information for the
purpose of establishing the identity of a passport applicant who has
not submitted adequate evidence with his/her passport application.
This affidavit is executed by a witness who can identify the
applicant.
22 U.S.C. § 211a, et seq.; Authority to
grant, issue, and verify passports
Executive Order 11295--Rules governing the
granting, issuing, and verifying of
United States
passports
22 C.F.R. Part 51, including 22 C.F.R. 51.24. Issuance of Passports
The DS-0071 is issued by the Department of State, and when completed, is evidence of a passport applicant’s identity. Lack of sufficient identify information may result in the denial of a passport application.
Because Department regulations at 22 C.F.R. 51.24 require an original signature, a complete end-to-end electronic submission for this form is not possible. Form DS-0071 is only available at acceptance facilities and passport agencies, and must be completed and signed in the presence of an authorized Passport Agent, Acceptance Agent, or Consular Officer.
The DS-0071 is the sole Department of State form that is used when a passport applicant cannot furnish proper identity documentation and seeks to submit a statement of an identifying witness in support of the application.
The collection of information does not involve small businesses or other small entities.
If the information solicited in the DS-0071 was not collected, passport applicants who lack sufficient documentation of identity (such as government issued photo IDs) would be unable to establish their identities, and would be unable to obtain U.S. passports.
No such special circumstances exist.
The Department of State published a 60-day notice to solicit public comments in the Federal Register (pages 75598-75599) on December 2, 2011. The Department received one comment during the posted period that suggested the Department require all affiants be U.S. citizens. The Department prefers that the identifying witness be a U.S. citizen/national or permanent resident alien of the United States. However, it recognizes that it may not be possible for all cases, particularly for applicants who are applying overseas.
This information collection does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.
This form includes a Privacy Act Statement explaining the routine use exceptions to the Act.
(5 U.S.C. § 552a)
The DS-0071 does ask the respondent to provide a Social Security number if one is available, and they wish to disclose it. The DS-71 is used in the rare circumstances when an applicant does not submit sufficient identity evidence for passport issuance. As such, these applications are more prone to fraudulent activity. By providing the witness’s Social Security number, the Department of State is able to use the databases at its disposal to verify the credibility and identity of the witness.
Passport Services estimates that the average time required for this information collection is 5 minutes per response. Therefore, the estimated total annual burden for the collection is:
44,000 (number of respondents) x 5 (minutes) / 60 = 3,667 hours per year
To estimate the cost to respondents for this form based on the hourly wage and weighted wage multiplier, the Department calculated the following:
$22.60 (mean hourly earnings based on estimated income per hour from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) x 1.4 (weighted wage multiplier) = $31.64 weighted wage
3,667 (annual hours) x $31.64 (weighted wage) = $116,024 (hour burden cost)
The estimated number of minutes required per response is based on a sampling of the time required to search existing data sources, gather the necessary information, provide the information required, review the final collection, and submit the collection to Passport Services for processing. The sampling was completed through consultation with a small group of Consular Affairs employees to validate the time.
There is no cost to the respondent associated with this form.
The cost to the Federal government for this collection is $10,959.
This cost was calculated based on the following:
- Cost to
print the form $3,229
- Plus the time and expense for a
contractor and an adjudicator to process the application
$2,512 (contractor) + $5,218 (adjudicator)
The program change reflects a decrease in use of this form from
163,300 to 44,000 since 2009. The Department estimates that there
will be 12,471,000 applications for a new passport (DS-0011)
annually for the next 3 years, and we estimate that 44,000 of those
applicants will need this form. This decrease is based on the fact
that the Department is making better use of public records as they
become more available online. As such, the Department has access to
more documentation to corroborate an applicant’s identity
claim, reducing the need for filling out a DS-71, which is primarily
used to help an applicant establish his/her identity.
The
form has been changed by deleting the field for the witness’
daytime phone number and adding a field for the witness’
Social Security number. This change does not alter the burden time.
This collection of information will not be published for statistical use.
Expiration date for OMB approval will be displayed.
No exceptions to the certification statement identified in Item 19, “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions” are being requested.
This collection does not employ statistical methods.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR |
| Author | USDOS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-31 |