Passports

Note from the US Secretary of State inside a U.S. passport:
“The Secretary of State for the United States of America hereby requests to all whom it may concern to permit the citizen or national to pass without delay or hinderance and in case of emergency to give all lawful aid and protection.”

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STATUS: Open for Discussion – many points still need vetted or proven. Add your comments, concerns, quotes, and links in the COMMENTS at the bottom of the page.

Resources: #180, #200, #560, #1180, Cornell Legal Information Institute, Travel.State.gov, USPS, Heads Up; State Department, David Straight Seminar, Utah Day 3 (Norris), Copper Moonshine Stills website,

Links of Interest:
26 CFR §51.2; Passport issued to nationals only

Official Information

Bureau of Consular Affairs: [current Secretary] [passport site]

U.S. Department of State
[current undersecretary name], Assistant Secretary
c/o Bureau of Consular Affairs
600 19th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. [20036]

The actual State Department Offices that issue passports are not the most convenient places to get to. You might have to do a little traveling to get this done. Of note: the office in Tucson isn’t labeled “Tucson”, it’s labeled “Western Passport Office” and is located at
7373 East Rosewood Street, Tucson, AZ 85710.

U.S. Passport Service Guide – Official Links:

Passport Corrections: points of interest on corrections

• visit a regional processing center where you can get a new passport as quickly as the same day. Neither an appointment nor proof of travel will be required if you choose to appear at a regional agency to have the error corrected in person.
• DO NOT send form DS 5504… to correct for “State National Status”. Clerks usually have no idea what that is, how to interpret your paperwork, so explain it in person.
  • I have self-determined my status as is my right (NOT “U.S. Citizen”)
  • My status is “Arizona State National” per 8 USC §1101(a)(21)
  • Here are my declarations and documents to those ends (928 paperwork)
  • Please issue me a passport that reflects “Arizona State National” status
  • then shut up… (paraphrased: David Straight)
• If reported within one year of issuance, a new, corrected passport will be issued, which will be valid for 10 years from the date the new, correct book is issued.
• If it has been less than 90 days, send to the agency which processed your passport application.
• There is no fee to get your passport corrected if requested at any time while the passport is still valid.
• When you submit a DS-5504 to correct a passport printing error, your request for a correction to your passport is processed as an expedited service.
  

Passports at U.S. State Department Office

David Straight recommends to get a correct passport for your corrected status, you need to go to a U.S. State Department Office and explain directly to those issuing it what your status is, why you qualify for it, and then require their performance. A post office, while convenient, is a “transfer station”. The clerk taking your application won’t be able to relay (or understand) your requested status to the staff issuing your passport if even given the opportunity. They stamp “U.S. Citizen” cookie cutter applications all day, every day, and know no different.

What about getting a passport

As a State National or State Citizen applying for a passport is nothing like their standard U.S. Citizen cattle chute. Check out the Copper Moonshine Stills resource for the method recommended by several leading State Nationals who comment on the subject.

When looking to schedule an appointment for “passport service” accessed through the U.S. State Department website, the most prevalent and numerous locations were all established post offices.

What Anna von Reitz had to say…

…as an American National? Some have tried this (including me), but keep getting put back as a “US citizen” status. Do you have a fail-safe procedure? (Question posed to Anna von Reitz, answer follows)

“The Post Office is the actual issuer of Passports and they could care less about our squabbles over which “United States” or which “United States of America” either, so they just send out a generic passport and leave it up to you to sign it in such a way as to indicate your political status. I signed mine with a by-line, as in by: Anna Maria Riezinger (claiming copyright and ownership of my Vessel.) and “Retired” —(serving notice that I am not under any obligation to any corporation) and “All rights reserved” — (serving notice that my Powers are my own and cannot be usurped by any attorney without my consent). I also obtained a “global postage stamp” — which guarantees first class postage for a letter to anywhere, and affixed it to the passport in the upper left above my signature and cancelled it by writing my full name and my place of departure (Big Lake, Alaska) across the face of the stamp in red-ink. This identifies me as a land-lubber mailing myself to the rest of the landlubbing world. A passport is basically a giant stamp mailing you to other destinations and giving the foreign authorities information about who you are and where you came from, so use it and think of it for what it is — a postal service product. And think of yourself as a Post Master, because under international law, that is exactly what you are. You handle the mail all the time, buy stamps, and when you mail items you sell stamps.” (AVR Answers to Questions)

I was not satisfied with nor convinced in the documentation offered by Anna von Reitz on the topic of “passports” and how to handle getting a passport for your correct status issued to you properly, the first time, and for the first one-hundred-and-sixty odd dollars. For that I felt that David Straight’s notes in “passport corrections” above seemed more effective (yet to be tested myself).

Noted below are some of those answers that are, in my opinion, a bit off-target and don’t provide firmly established documentation, which your passport should be. One of the reasons for this website is to find correct information from people’s own experience and publish it to save others the trouble, not contribute to the confusion. So, please, pitch in and contribute your experience to educate the rest of us.

More General Passport Info:

Passport: “Official Channels”

As a place to start, you can go through the “official channels” and get the state-issued passport. From there, you can sign it reflecting your status (which they can’t rebut) and then request that the Secretary of State for your state actually “issue a correct passport with an accurate status” as Anna von Reitz suggests above. Here’s where to start:

1. See the official U.S. State Department forms page OR DS-11 application.
   1. Select the appropriate application form
   2. Get your application(s) filled
2. Gather other required documents, make copies
   1. See form DS-11 for details: black and white, legible, on 8.5×11 paper
   2. Proof of “U.S. Citizenship”; birth certificate serves well
   3. Identification; drivers license is convenient, which most of us still have
   4. See photo requirements, passport specs OR “photo service” at post office
3. Locate passport service (regional processing center, OR find local post office)
4. Schedule an appointment (follow above link to nearest to your postal district)
   1. include “photo service” with your post office appointment (?)
   2. Schedule your appointment (USPS.com scheduler – PO finder included)
5. Prepare to pay associated fees (.pdf fee schedule OR Fee Page)
   1. First time application ($110) and acceptance ($35)
   2. if applicable ($60 for 4-6 week service)
6. You can review Covid-19 Accommodations the post office has adopted
7. Submit the Application: in person to a designated acceptance agent:
   1. regional processing center
   2. a clerk of a federal or state court of record
   3. judge or clerk of a probate court accepting applications
   4. a designated municipal or county official
   5. a designated postal employee at an authorized post office
   6. an agent at a passport agency (by appointment only)
   7. or a U.S. consular official at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, if abroad
   8. To find your nearest acceptance facility, visit travel.state.gov or contact the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778.
8. Your passport, book, and/or card will be delivered via US Postal Service

Endorsing Your Passport:

“The Secretary of State for the United States of America hereby requests to all whom it may concern to permit the citizen or national to pass without delay or hinderance and in case of emergency to give all lawful aid and protection.”

US Passport, page 2

Anna von Reitz suggests that the way in which you endorse the document can also convey your proper status and reservation of your rights until you can get it corrected.

“As for the Passports they do issue that are quasi-correct and issued under color of law, you can correct them and nail down their interpretation by the way you sign them. Always sign everything with a by-line. By: John Peter Doe. That claims your copyright. All rights reserved. Take one of those $1.00 Global stamps and stick it above your signature, and cancel it by writing your name and the place you are “leaving from” across the stamp in red ink. The Post Master has now cancelled the Global Stamp and the “cargo”— the Name you have copyrighted and affixed — is ready to be mailed to whatever destination your little heart desires.” [AVR#1180]

Combined with a few other ideas, the endorsement of my passport resembles the somewhat “elaborate endorsement” shown at the introduction of this section above.

• Autograph with a byline, “by: _______” (I added, “© Executor”)
• mark your vessel and autograph with the © Copyright symbol
• sign over a $1.00 Global USA postage stamp
• mark also your venue of origin (where your trip is starting: home)
  • [I viewed this as optional since it’s dynamic and can change]
• I added several features that I found brief and effective:
  • “JOHN QUINCY PUBLIC – VESSEL” (clear recognition of a corporate fiction)
    • passport issued to “a thing”, which I acknowledge and supersede
    • date received in purple (a sovereign directive)
  • autographed in red ink as given name (all lower case; living soul)
  • inclusion of seal, thumbprint in red ink touching the autograph
  • NOTED: “without prejudice, UCC 1-308” (reservation of rights)
  • NOTED: “safe conduct per 18 USC §1545” (reservation of rights)

Make Your Own Passport:

While it sounds like a “fun project” as suggested by Anna von Reitz, I wouldn’t use this as anything more than a cross-referenced form of identity; an “Exhibit and Evidence of Proven Identity” processed through US Postal Service. The post office will have delivered a portion addressed to you at your selected address and your FSIA Mandatory notice which bears your name, your signature, and the signature of a state officer (assembly recorder) who has verified your identity. I would not recommend trying to cross international borders or boarding any transport bound out of the country on the “merits” of this self-publication alone. It might make for “supporting evidence” in a pinch, and a very interesting homeschool project, learning experience, and form of identity for your kids without having to go through “official channels”.

References to US Statutes:

18 U.S. Code § 1701 – Obstruction of mails generally – Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 1703 – Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers – (a), (b), and “Whoever, without authority, opens, or destroys any mail or package of newspapers not directed to him, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

18 U.S. Code § 1724 – Postage on mail delivered by foreign vessels – Except as otherwise provided by treaty or convention the Postal Service may require the transportation by any steamship of mail between the United States and any foreign port at the compensation fixed under authority of law. Upon refusal by the master or the commander of such steamship or vessel to accept the mail, when tendered by the Postal Service or its representative, the collector or other officer of the port empowered to grant clearance, on notice of the refusal aforesaid, shall withhold clearance, until the collector or other officer of the port is informed by the Postal Service or its representative that the master or commander of the steamship or vessel has accepted the mail or that conveyance by his steamship or vessel is no longer required by the Postal Service. (I thought it was interesting – dp)

Tortious Interference – is a common law tort allowing a claim for damages against a defendant who wrongfully interferes with the plaintiff’s contractual or business relationships.

Intentional interference with contractual relations – At common law, a defendant is liable to pay damages in tort for actions intended to interfere with the plaintiff’s contractual relations with a third party. In an intentional interference claim, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove the elements of the claim rather than on the defendant to prove that its acts were justified. To prevail on the claim, plaintiff must prove four elements: (1) that a valid contract existed, (2) that defendant had knowledge of the contract, (3) that defendant acted intentionally and improperly,  and (4) that plaintiff was injured by the defendant’s actions. United Truck Leasing Corp. v. Geltman, 406 Mass. 811, 812, 551 N.E.2d 20 n. 6 (Mass. 1990).

17 U.S. Code § 501 – Infringement of copyright – (a)Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 122 or of the author as provided in section 106A(a), or who imports copies or phonorecords into the United States in violation of section 602, is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author, as the case may be. For purposes of this chapter (other than section 506), any reference to copyright shall be deemed to include the rights conferred by section 106A(a). As used in this subsection, the term “anyone” includes any State, any instrumentality of a State, and any officer or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in his or her official capacity. Any State, and any such instrumentality, officer, or employee, shall be subject to the provisions of this title in the same manner and to the same extent as any nongovernmental entity. (b)The legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a copyright is entitled, subject to the requirements of section 411, to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right committed while he or she is the owner of it. The court may require such owner to serve written notice of the action with a copy of the complaint upon any person shown, by the records of the Copyright Office or otherwise, to have or claim an interest in the copyright, and shall require that such notice be served upon any person whose interest is likely to be affected by a decision in the case. The court may require the joinder, and shall permit the intervention, of any person having or claiming an interest in the copyright.