I have not tried this (I plan to next time) but several USMA members have pointed out that if you fill in the form by hand, there is no problem submitting height in meters or centimeters. The data does not appear on the passport in any case, it is only tucked away in government files.
I can understand that given Congress position that "metric must be voluntary" that they would accept Customary measurement to accomodate those Americans who have not voluntarily converted to metric. However, "there ought to be a law" as they shoukld not force those (few) who have converted to continue to use the non-preferred system of measure. Oh wait, there is a law, EO 12770. Apparently, there is no penalty for ignoring it. Perhaps we should look for a forum to make an issue of all forced usage of Customary, and refusal to accept or provide metric data, by government. Why must metric be voluntary and Customary forced? What does that say about which is "preferred?" I also note that they require "American style" dates (mm/dd/yyyy) which they transpose on the passport to an internalional style dd mmm yyyy, with an alpha month abbreviation. My recollection is that "landing cards" require dd/mm/yyyy (I think filling it out wrong is your admission ticket to the "Americans only" passport line on re-entry). Should we also push for official use of ISO8601? ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, January 17, 2011 7:33:43 AM Subject: [USMA:49535] Re: US Passport renewal CS-11 and CS-82 form only ask for 'height' http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79955.pdf and (renewal) 79960.pdf, but the on-line equivalent does ask for feet and inches. I wonder if you use A4 stock if they would reject it? Id put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we dont have to wait til oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had a few more years left. -- Thomas Edison♽☯♑ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Payne" <[email protected]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2011 11:12:11 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [USMA:49530] US Passport renewal I see the US passport web site at travel.state.gov/ passport /forms/forms_847.html still requires height in feet and inches. I put in 1 ft 7 inches and intend to change it by pen once the form ahs printed out. The photo size is still in inches. It seems this site would have been quite easily made to comply with the Metric Conversion act and Executive order 12770. I sent a suggestion to [email protected] which ask for feedback on the web site. Michael Payne
