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 were 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 in the Federal Register to solicit public comments on November 9, 2015 (80 FR 69270). No comments were received.
This information collection does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.
The Department provides no promises of confidentiality, other than those included in the Privacy Act and other federal statutes. This form includes a Privacy Act Statement explaining the routine use exceptions to the Act.
The DS-0071 asks the respondents to provide a Social Security number if one is available, and if they wish to disclose it. The DS-0071 is used in 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’ 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: 61,000 affiants (number of respondents) x 5 (minutes) / 60 = 5,083 hours per year
The sampling was completed through consultation with a small group of Consular Affairs employees to validate the time.
The estimated cost to respondents is based on the weighted wage rate category for “All occupations” from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website multiplied by the annual time burden (5,083 hours). The wage rate is estimated to be $31.26 per hour ($22.33 average wage *1.4 multiplier). Therefore, the estimated annual burden hour cost to respondents “all occupations” is $158, 894.58.
There is no cost to respondent associated with this form.
The projected annual cost to the federal government for this collection is $68,320. Part of the cost was calculated based upon the recurring costs in the Bureau of Budget and Planning, New Position Cost Model for domestic Civil Service employees. The hourly cost for FY 2016 for domestic Civil Service is $67.12. The Passport Office estimates that reviewing the DS-71 requires 1 minute of a Civil Service passport adjudicator’s time. Dividing $67.12/hr. by 60 seconds yields a processing time cost of $1.12. Multiplying the projected number of respondents (61,000) by $1.12 yields $68,320.
The program change reflects an increase in respondents’ use of this form from 44,000 to 61,000. This increase is based on the expectation that passport demand in general will greatly increase over the next few years, impacting all form projections, including the DS-71. Changes in costs reported in sections 12 and 14 are due to using different cost and time estimates that now conform to methods used elsewhere in the Department of State, in particular, using information on recurring costs from the Bureau of Budget and Planning’s New Position Cost model.
In addition to general format changes, the following content changes have been made to the form:
Under the heading, Witness Information, the “Note to the Witness” was revamped. The font has been made smaller and the language for photocopying of identification was added. I declare under penalty of perjury that…is now italicized. “STOP! DO NOT SIGN THE AFFIDAVIT UNLESS REQUESTED TO DO SO BY AN AUTHORIZED ACCEPTANCE AGENT” was added to prevent applicants from signing prior to the oath being administered by the acceptance agent(s).
Place of Issuance was removed and Date of Issue was expanded by removal of line formatting in Section 12.
Under the “For Acceptance Agent’s Use only” section, “Passport Applicant’s Identification” was clarified. “Witness Identification” was re-named to read: “Witness’ Primary Identification”. Also, a “Witness’ Additional Identification” section was added for instances when the witness volunteers to provide more than one ID.
The new office and address was updated on the PRA statement.
The data gathered in this collection of information will not be published.
Expiration date for OMB approval will be displayed.
No exceptions to the OMB certification statement 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 | 2021-01-24 |