A previous post of ours erroneously reported that US Passport application fees can be waived for EBT recipients, and other low income households.

We have a quality assurance team that reviews our content prior to posting but unfortunately did not catch this error on the front end. Our social service news feed is widely broadcast and subsequently many people were misinformed. The mission of our organization is to make the social service delivery system more user-friendly, so our error was a significant embarrassment. This organization was formed by social workers. We get the gravity of our mistake and the frustration of those we let down.

The erroneous information about passport fee waivers persists in numerous locations on the internet, enough so that search engines and chatbots have been propagating the incorrect information. We’ve included a screenshot of a Google AI response that demonstrates the degree to which this inaccurate information has propagated. In our screenshot Google AI erroneously reports that “There are several ways to qualify for a fee waiver for a passport application…”

Given the high ranking of our misinformation within Google search results, we’ve elected to keep the URL of the post the same, and just change the content, to increase the likelihood that those searching for information about passport fee waivers will be correctly informed.

The correct information is simply this. The fee waiver forms provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Citizenship and Immigration Services, can not be applied to waive fees for U.S. Passports. The fee waiver forms are valid forms, just not applicable to U.S. Passports. This information can be verified on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services government website. An updated post with information about the fee waivers for immigrants in available on our website.

Anyone who has recently included a fee waiver request with a passport application or renewal form, should contact their US Senator’s office to request help intercepting it. If you still want the application to be processed, and can pay for the processing fee, your US Senator’s office can help you submit your payment. If you are able to intercept the application and make the payment, you could save a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted waiting for the application to be returned, denied due to lack of payment. This presumes the only thing wrong with your application was the inclusion of the fee waiver request, and thereby the lack of payment.

I want to thank the community case workers that make our social service newsfeed possible. I remain grateful for and confident in the processes we have in place to enable boots-on-the-ground sourcing and quality assurance fact-checking for those most in need of supportive resources. Continue to do what you can to make a better world for those in need of it.

Stefan C. Densmore, President/CEO & Janitor, United Resource Connection.

You can find more resources related to IDs and citizenship by selecting the “IDs & Citizenship” category tab on our “Social Service Utilization Library” page.