Why can't your passport be proof of citizenship?

One of the most curious things that you get asked for during your initial paperwork collection is for a document called "proof of citizenship". You are asked for this in addition to your passport.

Your passport is a photo/biometric identification, and all passports clearly list the country that you are a citizen of, so why is additional documentation necessary?

The answer is related to the length of time that a passport is valid for. The 法務省 {hōmushō} (Ministry of Justice), in general, wants all of the documentation is receives to be issued or certified within six months. For some documents, three months. A typical passport, on the other hand, often doesn't expire for five or ten years.

Because the naturalization process of gathering and review by the case worker, which can involve multiple appointments separated by weeks to months, many applicants have stories of paperwork that they initially gathered at the beginning of the process "expiring" before submission to the 法務省 {hōmushō} (Ministry of Justice), requiring the applicant to get additional certified copies of the same document (with a "fresher" issue date) near the end of the gathering process.

If your passport for your home country has been issued for less than six months, it can in fact be used as proof of citizenship for naturalization without needing additional documentation.

In the case of the United States, there is no official document called "Proof of citizenship," so what happens is a consular officer types up the details of the first page of your U.S. passport (Name, D.O.B., citizenship, etc) on embassy letterhead then endorses it with the embassy stamp/seal. It costs $30 for this service, which is much cheaper than a passport.

There are cases, of course, where a person may be overseas and not possess a valid (unexpired) passport, as not having a passport does not mean you're not a citizen of that country.

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