BONA FIDE NEED FOR ISSUANCE OF NO-FEE PASSPORTS

Due to reimbursement to Department of State for the processing of, "not the issuance of", requests for 

special issuance passports, applicants are required to prove the bona fide need for such passports. 

This means providing travel information and identifying a destination that requires a special issuance 

passport for entry/exit to identified country. Passports will no longer be issued just because of or in 

preparation for possible travel.

Baseline will be the Foreign Clearance Guide (FCG), U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (22 CFR Part 51), 

Department of Defense Delegation (DoDD 1000.21). If there is no travel requirement the passport will 

not be issued.

Sufficient documentation is required for justification. Examples include: fully executed individual TDY 

orders (DD Form 1610), civilian PCS orders (DD Form 1614) or military PCS orders that specifically state a 

country that requires an official passport per the Foreign Clearance Guide.

Orders:

There is no longer the issuance of passports for " Just in case", "possible" or "maybe". Agents will 

request all applicants to provide orders or travel justification and the destination of required travel. 

Destination of travel is not "Classified" only the mission and nature of the order. Applicants unable to 

provide sufficient justification will not be processed until able to provide the necessary proof of travel 

and support documents. 

Types of orders accepted for processing of passports; LOI, TCS, PCS, TDY, TAD, RIF, RAD, RFO,

TEMADD, MOB, CTO airline reservation or itinerary Form 1610, Form 1614/1617, Med Form 555, ENG 

Form 4960, Job and position acceptance (OCONUS), Recent deployments on short notice presenting a 

track record or Previous DTS orders providing history of required travel. Permissive TDY or No Cost 

orders do not justify issuance.

In October 2015, DOS sent out an Executive Memorandum informing all Executive Branches that it was 

to start seeking reimbursement for the processing of all special issuance passports beginning FY2017. It 

should be noted, that DOS is reimbursement for the processing of applications and not the issuance of 

the special issuance passports, applicants will still need to prove their entitlement to such passports -

meaning they must provide travel information and identify a destination that requires a special issuance 

passport for entry/exit.

. Certified foreign birth certificate including parent(s)' names

. Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240)

. Certification of Birth Abroad (Form DS-1350) with parent( s )' names

. Adoption decree including adopting parent(s) names

. Court order establishing sole custody

. Court order establishing guardianship and authority to apply for passport

. Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of Citizenship with recognizable photo

. Permanent Resident Alien Card

Organizations with large size military elements being mobilized and requiring official passports in order 

to fulfill the mission must review this notice thoroughly and contact DoD DET Fort Belvoir for approval. 
Points of contact for information):

Robinson, Maurice C CIV USARMY HQDA OAA DET (US) < maurice.c.robinson2.civ@mail.mil >

Lipanovich, Anthony M CIV USARMY HQDA OAA DET (US) < anthony.m.lipanovich.civ@mail.mil >;

SUBMIT waiver REQUEST TO: ‘usarmy.belvoir.hqda-oaa-det.mbx.exception-options@mail.mil’ 

 

Directorate of Executive Travel (DoD EA) handles the vetting of military unit's requesting passports for 

deployments through three official travel passport issuance exception options. We have a three options 

for the official passport process when it comes to rapid deployments/movement with no time for travel 

orders for different size missions, groups and military elements. 

The options are;

- a Memorandum in Lieu of Orders

- a Deployment/Movement Memorandum

- a Passport Waiver Request. 

The memorandum in lieu of orders is used for a small group of individuals (1-35). It is a onetime 

use memorandum listing the applicant’s names who are applying for official passports without official 

travel orders (TDY/PCS). The memorandum must list a country that requires military members to have a 

passport per the Foreign Clearance Guide and must have significant justification on why orders are not 

available or able to be issued in time for travel. Once used the memorandum is no longer valid. 

The Deployment/Movement memorandum exception option is used for large size military 

elements (usually around 50-400 personnel) being mobilized on the tasking of DEPORDS, OPORDS, 

EXORDS and MOBORDS that need official passports in order to fulfill the mission. The memorandum 

must list a country that requires military members to have a passport per the Foreign Clearance Guide. 

A force tracking number can be used to verify the mission requirements but ultimately this option 

requires supporting documentation/information from a known/authorized operation planning source to 

justify the bona fide need for passports. A by name list of applicants is also required and the 

memorandum can only be used once for each listed applicant. 

The Passport Waiver request is used for continual rotation operations usually revolving around 

a certain position, mission or organization that are executive authority rated as essential and extreme 

frequent travel validation is required. For example, the DoD explosive detector dog handler positions fall 

within the realm of a waiver request. If a passport waiver request is approved, the validity of the waiver 

lasts for up to three years. 

All of the options listed above have very similar requirements of information which are listed below:

*In order to be considered your request must be signed by an O-6 or equivalent.

* State what your unit is responsible for.

* Identify how many personnel are assigned to your unit.

*Of that number, identify how many personnel within your unit you believe require an official passport 

and, of that number, how many already possess an official passport.
*Using the attached spreadsheet (Historical tab), identify historically over the past 2-years, how often 

your unit was tasked for short/no-notice missions, including examples of missions that may have failed 

or would have failed for lack of a waiver. 

* For each separate tasking the following should be noted:

* Identify the month/year in which the tasking occurred.

* Identify the lead time from notification to actual departure.

* Identify to which country or countries your unit was tasked under this mission.

* Identify how many personnel were utilized for this tasking?

* Identify if the mission was diverted to a country requiring a passport. If so, to which country?

* Identify if those deployed were forward deployed to other countries. If so, to which country(ies)?

* Using the attached spreadsheet (Projected tab), identify if your unit has any projected missions in the 

near future that require the use of an official passport for entry. 

* For each separate tasking the following should be noted:

* Identify month/year of scheduled deployment.

* Identify month/year or number of days when initially notified of current tasking.

* Identify the country or countries to which being tasked.

* Identify how many personnel would support each tasking.

* Identify how your unit currently control/account for official passports.

*Identify what happens to the official passport issued to members of your unit, when the individual 

retires, separates, is reassigned, etc.

Attached some documents that are used in these processes:

The attachment titled deployment Info in support request can be used for all three options but only 

required for the passport waiver request option.

The attachment titled memorandum in lieu of orders template is used for memorandum in lieu of orders 

option.

The attachment titled deployment-movement passport memorandum template is used for the 

deployment/movement memorandum option.

The attachment titled waiver request template is used for the passport waiver request option. 

When it comes to the length of the processing times for these options, it greatly depends on how fast 

the requirements can be collected and submitted correctly with a sufficient amount of data qualifying 

for the review of Department of State's Special Issuance Agency (SIA). Each request is handled 

individually by a Directorate of Executive Travel (DET) team member and can estimate from 2 weeks to 2 

months before a decision is made. If any information that needs to be reviewed is classified, please send 

the classified information to my SIPR address listed in the signature block below and send it to the SIPR 

address Maurice.C.Robinson2.civ@mail.smil.mil195845. Please respond with any concerns or questions 

you may have about these exception options.

V/r,

David Ruiz, PhD

Program Support Specialist

Directorate of Executive Travel

Office of the Administrative Assistant 

to the Secretary of the Army

9301 Chapek Road, Bldg. 1458
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060

Email: david.ruiz68.civ@mail.mil

Comm: 703-693-9150

DoDM O-1000.21: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/O100021_placeholder.pdf

https://passportmatters.hqda.pentagon.mil/index.aspx

https://secureappcac2.hqda.pentagon.mil/VPAS3/ 

Tell us how we are doing:

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