SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
Supplemental Questionnaire
to Determine Identity for a U.S. Passport
OMB Number
1405-0215
DS-5520
The Supplemental Questionnaire to Determine Identity for a U.S. Passport, Form DS-5520, is used to supplement an application for a U.S. passport when the applicant submits identity evidence that is insufficient or of questionable authenticity. Passport Specialists and Consular Officers will use this form to collect additional information to further establish the identity of a passport applicant who has not submitted adequate evidence with his/her initial passport application.
The DS-5520 solicits data necessary for Passport Services to issue a U.S. passport in the exercise of responsibilities granted to the Secretary of State in 22 U.S.C. 221a and Executive Order 11295 (August 5, 1966) for the issuance of passports to U.S. citizens and non-citizen nationals. Such responsibilities require the determination of identity and citizenship or nationality with reference to the provisions of Title III of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. sections 1201 – 1503) and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and compliance with 22 U.S.C. 212 and 213. Implementing regulations are found at 22 C.F.R. parts 50 and 51.
By definition, a passport is a travel document issued under the authority of the Secretary of State attesting to the identity and nationality of the bearer (22 C.F.R. 51.1 (d)). An applicant bears the burden of establishing his/her identity and nationality, and the Department may require an applicant to submit such additional evidence of identity and/or nationality as it deems to be necessary (22 C.F.R. 51.23, 51.40, 51.45). The requirements for establishing an applicant’s identity and nationality are outlined in 22 C.F.R. Parts 50 and 51.
The legal authorities under which the information is requested include, but are not limited to the following:
22 U.S.C. 211a et seq.;
22 U.S.C. 2714a(f);
Executive Order 11295; and
22 C.F.R. Parts 50 and 51.
The Department of State uses this information to verify the respondent’s identity for purposes of determining eligibility for a U.S. passport. The information is also used to combat passport fraud and misuse. This form is used to supplement an existing passport application and solicits information relating to the respondent’s employment and residences that are needed to corroborate an applicant’s identity claim prior to passport issuance. Without adequate information about an applicant, the Department cannot issue that applicant a U.S. passport. Furthermore, inaccurate evidence or information could possibly result in issuance of a passport to a non-U.S. national or to a U.S. national using an assumed identity. In addition to this primary use of the data, the DS-5520 may be used as evidence in the prosecution of any individual who makes a false statement on an application for a U.S. passport and for other uses as set forth in the Department wide Prefatory Statement and the Passport System of Records Notice (State-26).
Due to current law, regulations, and available technology, this form cannot be submitted electronically; however, we have made the form available on the Department’s website, www.travel.state.gov where it can be filled out on-line and printed for submission. The Department is also continuing its efforts to investigate, test, and deploy more complete electronic options, while still meeting statutory requirements and standards for protecting U.S. national security.
The information collected does not duplicate information collected elsewhere.
The collection of information does not involve small businesses or other small entities.
The information cannot be collected less frequently. It must be collected to issue a passport, document, or service when the applicant submits insufficient or inadequate evidence of identity. Eliminating the Department of State’s ability to solicit vital identity information from knowledgeable sources in connection with passport services could result in unnecessary passport denials and/or issuance of passports to ineligible persons.
No such special circumstances exist.
The Department of State published a 60-day notice in the Federal Register to solicit public comments on March 11, 2016 (81 FR 13023). No comments were received.
This information collection does not provide any payment or gift to respondents.
The form includes a Privacy Act Statement explaining the routine use exceptions to the Act. (5 U.S.C. § 552a). Passport applicants are required to submit their Social Security numbers with the passport application and failure to provide a Social Security number may result in the denial of an application (consistent with 22 U.S.C. 2714a(f))
The DS-5520 does not ask questions of a sensitive nature.
The estimated burden of forty-five minutes required per response is based on a sampling of time required to complete this form. The number of respondents is estimated at 82,347 per year. The annual burden is estimated to be 61,760 hours. (82,347 x 45 minutes/60).
The annual cost to respondents for the hour burden is based on the weighted wage rate category for “All occupations” from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics website multiplied by the annual time burden. The wage rate is estimated to be $31.26 per hour (22.33 average wage x 1.4 multiplier). Therefore the estimated annual burden hour cost to respondents “all occupations” is $31.26/hour x 61,760 hours = $1,930,617.60.
There is no cost to respondent associated with this form.
The projected annual cost to the federal government for this collection is $321,489. 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 employees is $67.12. The Passport Office estimates that reviewing the DS-5520 requires 1 minute of a Civil Service passport adjudicator’s time. Dividing $67.12/hr. by 60 seconds (1 minute) yields a processing time cost of $1.12. Multiplying the projected number of respondents (82,347) by the cost of $1.12 processing time yields $92,228.
The remainder of the cost is Passport Services’ total operating budget including equipment, overhead, printing, and support staff employed for this information collection is $229,261.
The program reflects an increase in respondent’s use of this form from 69,011 to 82,347 in anticipation of passport projections expected to jump drastically in the next few years 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. We do not anticipate these changes will impact the burden estimate in any way.
In Section B, under the heading Information About Your Family, which asks the applicant to specifically list “U.S. City & State or City & Country” to differentiate whether the applicant was born in the United States or outside of the United States. For Relationship, we’ve replaced siblings with Brother/Sister and also added an additional field to include the spouse.
In Section C, under Employment, the language was edited to list the last four places of employment (to go back further in time), and also the “Job Title” field was added in such cases where applicants have difficulties remembering to list their employment addresses. “City, State” field has been renamed to “U.S. City and State or City & Country” for consistency purposes with Section B.
The collection of information will not be published for statistical use.
The expiration date for OMB approval will be displayed.
No exceptions to the OMB certification statement are requested.
This collection does not employ statistical methods.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | "%username%" |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-23 |