A U.S. passport is not only a travel document but also an official verification of the bearer’s origin, identity, and nationality. Under U.S. law, the Secretary of State has the authority to issue passports. Only U.S. nationals may obtain a U.S. passport, and evidence of citizenship or nationality is required with every passport application. For individuals 16 or older, a regular U.S. passport issued on or after February 1, 1998, is valid for 10 years from the date of issue; it is valid for five years for younger applicants. Federal regulations list those who do not qualify for a U.S. passport, including those who are subjects of a federal felony warrant. The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services oversees the Passport Services Office, within State’s Consular Affairs Bureau. Passport Services, the largest component of Consular Affairs, consists of three headquarters offices: Policy Planning and Legal Advisory Services; Field Operations; and Information Management and Liaison. The Office of Consular Fraud Prevention addresses passport, visa, and other types of consular fraud. The Consular Systems Division is responsible for the computer systems involved in passport services and other consular operations. The Office for American Citizens Services handles most issues relating to passport cases at overseas posts. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is responsible for investigating individual cases of suspected passport and visa fraud. The State Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) also has some authority to investigate passport fraud. Figure 1 shows the key State Department units involved in passport-related operations. State operates 16 passport-issuing offices in Boston; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; Honolulu; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; New York; Norwalk, Connecticut; Philadelphia; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. These 16 offices employ the approximately 480 passport examiners who are responsible for approving and issuing most of the U.S. passports that are printed each year. The number of passports issued by domestic passport offices has risen steadily in recent years, increasing from about 7.3 million in fiscal year 2000 to 8.8 million in fiscal year 2004. Overseas posts deal with a much lower volume of passports by comparison, handling about 300,000 worldwide in fiscal year 2004. With only a few exceptions, applications submitted and approved overseas are transmitted electronically to a domestic passport office to be printed. The majority of passport applications are submitted by mail or in-person at one of almost 7,000 passport application acceptance facilities nationwide. Passport acceptance facilities are located at certain U.S. post offices, courthouses, and other institutions and do not employ State Department personnel. The passport acceptance agents at these facilities are responsible for, among other things, verifying whether an applicant’s identification document (such as a driver’s license) actually matches that applicant. Applications go to a passport office to be examined after their information is entered, and payments are processed by a State Department contractor, Mellon Bank, in Pennsylvania. Through a process called adjudication, passport examiners determine whether they should issue each applicant a passport. Adjudication requires the examiner to scrutinize identification and citizenship documents presented by applicants to verify their identity and U.S. citizenship. It also includes the examination of an application to detect potential indicators of passport fraud and the comparison of the applicant’s information against databases that help identify individuals who may not qualify for a U.S. passport. When passport applications are submitted by mail or through acceptance facilities, examiners adjudicate the applications at their desks. A relatively small percentage of the total number of passport applications are submitted directly by applicants at one of State’s domestic passport- issuing offices. Applicants are required to demonstrate imminent travel plans to set an appointment for such services at one of the issuing office’s public counters. “Counter” adjudication allows examiners to question applicants directly or request further information on matters related to the application, while “desk” adjudication requires telephoning or mailing the applicants in such cases. Figure 2 depicts the typical passport application and adjudication process. The passport adjudication process is facilitated by computer systems— including the Travel Document Issuance System (TDIS), which appears on passport examiners’ screens when the adjudication begins. Figure 3 identifies the key computer databases available to help examiners adjudicate passport applications and detect potential fraud. TDIS automatically checks the applicant’s name against several databases— including State’s Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), which contains information provided by various offices within State and information on outstanding criminal warrants provided by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the FBI, and other state and federal agencies, as well as Health and Human Services’ database, which identifies parents who have been certified by a state agency as owing more than $5,000 in child support and therefore are not eligible for a passport. If TDIS indicates the applicant may have applied for a passport at another agency or been issued a U.S. passport within the last 10 years, it prompts the examiner to reference computer databases outside of TDIS to determine whether the prompt refers to the applicant or rather someone who resembles the applicant. In addition, examiners scrutinize paper documents and other relevant information during the fraud detection process. Examiners compare the application submitted by the applicant to the information on the screen to make sure the information was entered properly, check for missing information, and analyze application documentation for various types of fraud indicators. In addition, examiners watch for suspicious behavior and travel plans. Examiners and acceptance agents are instructed to request additional proof of identification if they feel the documents presented are insufficient. State officials said that in such cases, some individuals abandon the application, and the names of those who do are placed in State’s name-check system and are more stringently scrutinized if they apply again. When examiners detect potentially fraudulent passport applications, they send the applications to their local fraud prevention office for review and potential referral to State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security for further investigation. Using the stolen identities and documentation of U.S. citizens is the primary tactic of those fraudulently applying for U.S. passports. Applicants also commit fraud through other means. Passport fraud is often linked to other crimes. State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security investigators stated that imposters’ use of assumed identities, supported by genuine but fraudulently obtained identification documents, was a common and successful way to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. This method accounted for 69 percent of passport fraud detected in fiscal year 2004. Investigators found numerous examples of aliens and U.S. citizens obtaining U.S. passports using a false identity. One example identified by Diplomatic Security investigators involved an alien using another person’s identity to obtain a U.S. passport. In 2003, a woman using a fraudulent identity claimed to be born in Puerto Rico and provided a Puerto Rican birth certificate when applying for a passport at a clerk of the court office in Florida. She also provided a Florida driver’s license. Diplomatic Security investigators also found cases of U.S. citizens using the documentation of others to hide their true identity. In 1997, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Cuba stole a Lear jet and transported it to Nicaragua for use in charter services. At the time of his arrest in 2003, he was using an assumed identity and possessed both false and legitimate but fraudulently obtained identification documents, including a U.S. passport in the name he used while posing as a certified pilot and illegally providing flight instruction. Seized at his residence when he was arrested were two Social Security cards, four driver’s licenses, three Puerto Rican birth certificates, one U.S. passport, one pilot identification card, numerous credit cards and checking account cards, and items used to make fraudulent documents. In October 2004, he pled guilty to knowingly possessing five or more “authentication devices” and false identification documents, for which he was sentenced to 8 months’ confinement. In another case, a man wanted for murdering his wife obtained a Colorado driver’s license and a passport using a friend’s Social Security number and date and place of birth. Three and four years later he obtained renewal and replacement passports, respectively, in the same assumed identity. He was later arrested and pled guilty to making a false statement in an application for a passport. He was sentenced to time served (about 7 months) and returned to California to stand trial for murdering his wife. In a third example, a woman obtained a U.S. passport for herself and her daughter using the assumed identity of a friend and that friend’s daughter. The individual fled the country, but was eventually caught, returned to the United States, and tried for forgery, criminal impersonation, and child abduction. Applicants commit passport fraud through other means, including submitting false claims of lost, stolen, or mutilated passports; child substitution; and counterfeit citizenship documents. Some fraudulently obtain new passports by claiming to have lost their passport or had it stolen or that it was damaged. For example, one individual who used another person’s Social Security number and Ohio driver’s license to report a lost passport obtained a replacement passport through the one-day expedited service. This fraudulently obtained passport was used to obtain entry into the United States 14 times in less than three years. Diplomatic Security officials told us that another means of passport fraud is when individuals obtain replacement passports by using expired passports containing photographs of individuals they closely resemble. This method of fraud is more easily and commonly committed with children, with false applications based on photographs of children who look similar to the child applicant. Assuming the identity of a deceased person is another means of fraudulently applying for a passport.