Retention of Birth Evidence”. US Passport Office, Department of State (1953).

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Lucas Daniel Smith

Pictured in the two photographs below:   Your faithful and objective investigative reporter InspectorSmith (Lucas Daniel Smith) and his ardent research assistant in the midst of a reading up on presidential eligibility related data and also doing a little laundry.

What birth certificate or evidence of birth did Barack Hussein Obama II use when he applied for his first US Passport?

I understand that as [de facto] President of the United States of America, Barack Obama has a new, presidential, passport:
Furthermore, while Barack Obama served as US Senator from Illinois (2005 thru 2008) I’m not certain whether or not he was issued a unique government passport.
I am however somewhat certain that as a Illinois State Senator (1997 thru 2004), Barack Obama, was not issued a unique passport.   Like most other state senators and congressmen/women he probably would have used the same sort of US passport that any other citizen of the USA would have used.
Barring, excluding or aside from Barack Hussein Obama II’s birth in Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, in the year 1961, when was the first time that Obama traveled outside of the physical confines and boundaries of the United States of America?
The reason I ask is because I’d like to know approximately what year that Obama applied for his first US Passport.
From my reading (and my review posted at scribd.com) of his brother George Obama’s book, “Homeland: An Extraordinary Story of Hope and Survival“, at pages 17 thru 18, I’ve ascertained that, according to his brother George Obama, Barack Hussein Obama II was in Kenya at some point in or around the the year 1987 (or perhaps 1988).
I’ve also read, elsewhere, that Obama traveled to Pakistan (and Indonesia) in the year 1981.   It appears that his travel to Pakistan was not known to the general public prior to some point in the year 2008 when Obama was campaigning for Office of US President.   It appears that Obama himself made the admission at a 2008 fundraiser in San Francisco, California when he stated, “…I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college — I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
We also understand, from numerous sources, that Obama lived in Indonesia for approximately four (or perhaps more?) years as a child.  Most sources list 1967 thru 1971.
In the 1960s, or specifically 1967, did the child of a US citizen mother need a US passport to travel internationally?   In other words, did Obama’s mother apply for a US passport for her child, Barack Obama, at some point in or prior to the year 1967?
Or was a US passport not obtained until some point later in, or near, 1981 when Obama traveled to Pakistan and Indonesia as an adult?   Some have speculated that Obama traveled under a foreign passport in 1981.  I have not been able to affirm or substantiate such claims nor have I have been able to discredit such claims.
If Obama didn’t have a US passport by, or in, the year 1981 surely he must have applied for one prior to his 1987 (0r perhaps 1988) travel to Kenya?
There was a time when the US Passport Office permanently retained the tangible birth evidence supplied in applications submitted for US passports.   I have the US Passport Office, US Department of State and the US Passport Office’s then Director, R.B. Shipley, on record stating just that on a tangible document that is titled, RETENTION OF BIRTH EVIDENCE (year 1953):
“The evidence of birth submitted in connection with your application for a passport is being retained in the Department’s files since it establishes your acquisition of American citizenship and the right to apply for a passport of this Government. If you desire a copy of such evidence for your personal use, it may usually be obtained from the original source of issue. In those infrequent instances where this is not possible, the Department will furnish a photostatic copy of the evidence you submitted upon the receipt of an appropriate request.
“In view of the pressure of other work and the limited personnel facilities available to this Office, copies of such evidence should not be requested except in cases of actual need. The evidence of birth you submitted is in safekeeping in the files of this Office should you find it necessary to obtain a copy thereof at some future date. Your passport itself is evidence of the date and place of your birth as well as of your American citizenship.”
The original birth evidence documentation submitted in the passport application was not, at any point, returned to you.   Said documentation was held in safekeeping in the files of the US Passport Office.     Additionally, if you needed a copy of your birth evidence you were advised to seek such a copy from the original source of issue.  Only as a last resort would the US Passport Office supply you with a ‘photostatic’ copy of the birth documentation that you supplied in your passport application.  Your original and tangible birth document was not, at any point, returned to you.
I have the above referenced document in my personal possession and have subsequently scanned and uploaded to my Patriot1980 scribd.com account for review and embedded it below:
1954. ‘Retention of Birth Evidence’, letter/note to US Passport applicant Mary Catherine Bergamo from R.B. …
When (what year) did the US Passport Office, Department of State, United States of America, stop retaining the documentation supplied as evidence of birth in applications submitted for passports?
I applied for my first US Passport in the year 2006 after learning that it was probably going to become a law, as early as sometime in 2007 in the United States of America, that I could no longer travel back to the USA from the Dominican Republic using my birth certificate and state drivers license/identification card.
For the record, I used my ‘short form‘ birth certificate (Iowa) as evidence of birth in the USA when I applying for my US Passport.   I applied for my passport at a United States Post Office in Los Angeles, California.  At the time that I submitted my passport application I learned that my tangible birth certificate would be attached with the application and that my tangible birth certificate would be returned to me, along with my newly issued US passport, in a couple of weeks in the US postal mail.
At some point in time, prior (probably much prior) to my 2006 passport application, the policy of the retaining birth evidence must have changed.   When it changed I do not know.
I’d like to know two things:
           a.  When (what year) did the US Passport Office, Department of State change their policy of retaining birth evidence.
           b.  When (what year) did Barack Hussein Obama II apply for his first US Passport?
If the US Passport Office, Department of State did retain the birth evidence (birth certificate/birth record) that was submitted in Barack Hussein Obama II’s first passport application is that birth certificate/birth record the same document that was released to the public in April, 2011:
Barack Obama Birth Certificate Long Form. 1961, Hawaii. Certificate of Live Birth.
Or was the birth evidence slightly different?
If it was a Hawaiian birth record/document did it reflect that the birth was recorded by way of an affidavit rather than Hawaiian hospital/doctor documentation?
Alternatively, though probably less likely, is it possible that the birth evidence might have been a report or a certificate issued by the US Government which reflected the birth of a US citizen abroad?
I challenge and implore the readers of this blog to help me with this particular investigation.  Put on your thinking caps and fill the comments sections below with your thoughts, ideas, opinions, hunches, recommendations and corrections!
Thank you!