Passport
Articles tagged Passport from The VRO Blog.
The Fastest Passport in America Requires a Death Certificate
The State Department's life-or-death emergency appointment is the quickest route to a passport, and it turns on proof most families cannot produce in time. Which of the three accepted documents you can actually get today, and which relatives count.
Your Documents Are Perfect and State Can Still Refuse Your Passport
The grounds for refusing a passport are a published list in federal regulation, and most of them have nothing to do with your birth certificate. If your denial letter cites one of them, ordering another copy of anything will not fix it.
You Had a Passport Once and Can't Find It, and You Have No Birth Certificate Either
The State Department has a remedy for an applicant who can produce neither a passport nor a birth certificate: a search of its own passport files. It costs $150 for records issued before 1994, and for anything issued since, you may pay nothing at all.
Born in the Panama Canal Zone: The Birth Record No State Has, and the Citizenship It Doesn't Prove
Everyone born in the Canal Zone between 1904 and 1979 has a birth record held by exactly one office, the U.S. Department of State, and a record that, in the Department's words, did not automatically confer U.S. citizenship. How to order it, how long it takes, and what else a passport needs.
Your U.S.-Born Child's Passport Now Asks About Both Parents: What Executive Order 14418 Changed
On August 6, 2026, Executive Order 14418 superseded EO 14160. The State Department's implementation plan adds one new item for a narrow group of families, an attestation about the parents. The child's birth certificate requirement has not changed.
Born in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or American Samoa: Which Birth Record You Get and What It Proves
A territorial birth certificate is a U.S. vital record, not a foreign one. For four territories it proves citizenship at birth. For one, it proves something different, and the difference matters.
Your Passport Was Lost or Stolen Overseas: What the Embassy Actually Needs From You
Report it, then go in person. The consulate wants a photo, an ID, proof of citizenship, your itinerary and Form DS-11, and it has a free file search for travelers who arrive with nothing.
Accents, Tildes and Hyphens: Why Your Name Is Different on Every Document You Own
José on the birth certificate, Jose on the Social Security card, JOSE on the passport. Here is why systems drop diacritics, which mismatches matter, and how to fix them.
The 250th Anniversary Passport: How to Get One, and Why You Have to Show Up in Person
The commemorative passport costs no extra and is a fully valid passport, but it is issued only in person. That single constraint is what most applicants are unprepared for.