We don’t have a national ID, which is part of the issue. As a result, regular identification is by state depts (motor vehicles).
It also means for passports, you need to either fill out the form and mail it in, or visit a State Dept office for some expedited options (requires specific reasons to do so, requires an appointment).
In recent years, the Postmaster General has royally screwed the post office (that’s a whole separate thing, so I won’t go into that here. Short answer, Trump). So it runs pretty inefficiently, and that’s the main way that people are getting passports.
So… Several reasons why.
We have a national ID. It’s terribly insecure and we can’t call it that because fucking conservatives.
Social security is not identification though. We can’t call it that because its a crap ID. Closer would be RealID, but that’s still reliant on the state.
So I’d disagree saying SS is a national ID, its a number not identification.
That’s how it has been in the US. Now, though, if you already have a passport, you can renew online and take the picture yourself, and get it mailed directly to you.
The thing that makes getting a passport slightly tricky to begin with in some circumstances is needing proper ID. In the US, there’s no generalized law saying that you have to have certain forms of ID. Most people use drivers licenses as ID, but obviously not everyone has one (by choice or as a consequence of drunk driving). There are a lot of people without ID, and there are ways to get ID, but they can be difficult for people without resources. A birth certificate is hard to get if you don’t have one already, especially if you don’t know where you were born.
That’s exactly how you do it. It’s not same-day, but if you really need a passport same day, you probably messed something up, lol.
Most states (maybe even all of them by now) offer a non-driver ID, which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license, but isn’t valid for driving.
All that ID does is prove residence, though, it doesn’t prove citizenship. Most first-time applicants will also have to submit a birth certificate or other document proving citizenship. The USA has no other national document that proves citizenship. This service is for passport renewals, presumably the first time you apply for a passport you will still need to show up in person, with your documents.
which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license
Only as valid as the government worker thinks it is. I had one of those and the passport office wouldn’t accept it as proof of identity. I wound up having to get a parent with a driver’s license to vouch for me, in addition to providing a ton of extra id like library card, school ids, etc.
It can be hit or miss with some particularly stupid government workers, but Passport Cards are very much a thing and qualify as Real ID Compliant.
As a passport it is only valid for like Canada and Mexico but it is well worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks when you get a passport. On travel it is a nice ID that you don’t REALLY care if it gets stolen (since your Driver’s License is back at the hotel). Also incredibly useful when you need multiple forms of ID for something.
But also would not be a horrible choice as a non-driver ID. Just a hassle to get one without a Driver’s License because 'murica.
I mean… that IS how you get a passport. Just replace “police station” with “post office”.
The issue is that the US is comparable in size to the EU. Even excluding the flyover states, people can spend an entire lifetime just going on domestic trips for holidays and the like.
So the vast majority of Americans see no need for a passport until they have booked their dream trip and realize that France is a different country. Hence the mad rush and expedited processing and so forth.
I personally make life more inconvenient for myself because I refuse to deal with booking time for photos at a post office or pay a pharmacy to do it for me so I end up spending ten minutes in gimp formatting things every N years. But that is very much a stupid me thing.
- Wait a couple of weeks.
- Return to police station, pay the fee, and pick up your brand new ID or passport.
