US now allows passport renewals online.
US now allows passport renewals online.
The new system will allow travelers to bypass a cumbersome mail-in paper application process that often caused delays
It said 6 weeks, but mine arrived in 12 days!
ETA- they only take a certain number per day and that number resets at noon Eastern time (I think it's noon, but it might be 11:00 or 1:00. I can't remember.) so if you check right after that you'll likely get in.
Well, I have "getting up before 2 or 3 (depending on US daylight saving time) to get ready for renewal" to look forward to. I'm not sure if that's better than the time/money to travel to Tokyo.
That's amazing! Thank you so much for the info!
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We don't have a national ID, which is part of the issue. As a result, regular identification is by state depts (motor vehicles).
It also means for passports, you need to either fill out the form and mail it in, or visit a State Dept office for some expedited options (requires specific reasons to do so, requires an appointment).
In recent years, the Postmaster General has royally screwed the post office (that's a whole separate thing, so I won't go into that here. Short answer, Trump). So it runs pretty inefficiently, and that's the main way that people are getting passports.
So... Several reasons why.
You forgot the primary reason is Republicans voting against anything that encourages budget increases or improves efficient processes for government agencies.
We have a national ID. It's terribly insecure and we can't call it that because fucking conservatives.
I mean... that IS how you get a passport. Just replace "police station" with "post office".
The issue is that the US is comparable in size to the EU. Even excluding the flyover states, people can spend an entire lifetime just going on domestic trips for holidays and the like.
So the vast majority of Americans see no need for a passport until they have booked their dream trip and realize that France is a different country. Hence the mad rush and expedited processing and so forth.
I personally make life more inconvenient for myself because I refuse to deal with booking time for photos at a post office or pay a pharmacy to do it for me so I end up spending ten minutes in gimp formatting things every N years. But that is very much a stupid me thing.
That's how it has been in the US. Now, though, if you already have a passport, you can renew online and take the picture yourself, and get it mailed directly to you.
The thing that makes getting a passport slightly tricky to begin with in some circumstances is needing proper ID. In the US, there's no generalized law saying that you have to have certain forms of ID. Most people use drivers licenses as ID, but obviously not everyone has one (by choice or as a consequence of drunk driving). There are a lot of people without ID, and there are ways to get ID, but they can be difficult for people without resources. A birth certificate is hard to get if you don't have one already, especially if you don't know where you were born.
Most states (maybe even all of them by now) offer a non-driver ID, which has just as much validity as ID as a drivers license, but isn't valid for driving.
All that ID does is prove residence, though, it doesn't prove citizenship. Most first-time applicants will also have to submit a birth certificate or other document proving citizenship. The USA has no other national document that proves citizenship. This service is for passport renewals, presumably the first time you apply for a passport you will still need to show up in person, with your documents.
"Needing to go to the fucking police station" is arguably way more difficult than the US process.
It was similar to that when I got my new passport early this year. Filled out a form online, printed it off, went to the post office, got my Pic taken there, gave them a check and two weeks later my new passport was mailed to me.
I just got my passport photo taken on Monday at Walgreen's and uploaded the emailed copy to the online renewal form. It was denied for being too zoomed in. Ugh! Why do they change the photo requirements for the online form?
You can take your own passport photos. You just need a white background.
Be happy that is only that. My wife is an immigrant and getting her stuff is a fucking nightmare. You will feel like a hostage trying to get your own ransom.
Took them long enough.
Seriously? I just got mine done using the paper method and it was so annoying! Hope this is still around in 10 years.
I just completed mine online a month ago. I had an amazing experience and it took just under two weeks from start to finish. Online submission opens up at 1pm Eastern and I used an image taken from a phone at home.
I can't recommend this online workflow enough for any body that needs to renew.
Thank goodness. I've been dreading the renewal process with how spotty usps is at actually delivering mail to my building. I need the visas in it even after I get a new passport as some are valid significantly longer than the passport itself.
I did this while it was a pilot program. Extremely easy and the fastest processing I’ve ever had on a passport renewal.
Is this safe and now like phising? My passport been expired for over 5 years just dint want to do all the paper work
If you're on a ".gov" site, it's safe to expect that it is a legit site of the US government.
If it is expired, I don't think you can do it. Just if you are in the last year of validity.