U.S. citizens can now renew their passports online, but the service is currently restricted to a limited set of applicants.
“During the next several months, we plan to continue to limit the number of applications accepted each day so we can monitor the system’s performance in real time. This beta release during which we are limiting the daily applications is an important and standard part of the software development process,” the department said.
To apply online, the applicant must be 25 years or older and have a passport that has been valid for 10 years. The passport must have been issued between 2009 and 2015. The renewal application should not request a change in name, date of birth, place of birth, or gender.
The online renewal service is only available for a regular tourist passport. Special issuance passports, such as those used for diplomatic or official purposes, cannot be renewed online.
Applicants must live in the United States. They cannot reside in a foreign country or have an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) address.
At this time, the online renewal option is available for routine service, which takes six to eight weeks to process the application. The applicant should not have previously reported their passport as stolen or lost, and it must not be damaged.
The State Department clarified that a person’s current passport will be canceled after the renewal application is submitted and cannot be used for international travel.
Processing Passports
The State Department launched the pilot test of the online passport renewal program in 2022. The agency received 500,000 renewal requests through the pilot system, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a hearing in March last year.However, the department halted the program “to make sure that we can fine-tune it and improve it before we roll it out in a bigger way,” he said.
The online system is being implemented again following long delays in passport processing in 2023.
In April 2023, a congressional delegation told Mr. Blinken that their offices were “struggling to handle all incoming emergency requests due to the sheer volume” of pleas from citizens.
“Constituents are reporting that they are placed on hold by passport offices for hours before calls inexplicably drop,” the delegation wrote in a letter.
“These backlogs have resulted in many American families being forced to cancel their travel plans because of increased wait times, a lack of available in-person appointments, and an inability to communicate with passport agencies,” they wrote in a letter.
In August last year, the department said it was taking 10-13 weeks for routine processing of passports. Expedited processing, which comes at an additional cost of $60 on top of the standard fee of $130, took about seven to nine weeks.
“Between October 2022 and September 2023 (the federal fiscal year), the Department of State issued over 24 million passport books and cards—the highest amount ever in our nation’s history,” the agency said.
