Goodbye, Paper: U.S. Citizens Can Now Renew Their Passports Online

For some Americans, printing out your passport renewal application and sending it in will soon become a thing of the past. This week, the State Department announced that U.S. citizens now had the option to renew their passports entirely online.

175,000 applications processed this summer. The Start Department has been testing the online system since 2022, according to The Washington Post. In June, it scaled up the program, increasing the number of applications it could accept per day. This week’s announcement, however, removes these limitations and makes the system available 24/7.

More than 175,000 people successfully submitted their passport renewal applications during the system’s scale-up this summer.

Requirements to renew your passport online. Not everyone can renew their passport online. For instance, people who want to change their name, gender, date of birth, or place of birth on their passports aren’t eligible. Neither are American citizens who live outside the U.S.

Here are some other requirements. You can read the full list on the State Department’s website.

• The passport you’re renewing must have been valid for 10 years. You must be over 25 years old.
• Your passport was issued between 2009 and 2015, or more than 9 years ago but less than 15 years from the date you plan to submit your application.
• You’re applying for a regular tourist passport. Special passports, such as diplomatic or official passports, can’t be requested online.
• You have your passport with you, and it is not damaged or mutilated. You also have not reported it as lost or stolen.

Notably, the State Department points out that the processing time for online passport renewal is the same as it is for those sent in via mail, which is six to eight weeks for standard service. You’re not able to request expedited service online.

Snail mail isn’t going away. If you don’t meet the requirements to process your renewal online or have a family member who’s not comfortable with technology, don’t worry. You still have the option to renew your passport by mail.

"The benefit of online passport renewal is that it's a more convenient service," Rena Bitter, the assistant secretary for consular affairs, told reporters this week. "We don't expect to have a different service standard for people who apply online versus people who apply by mail. We just want to make sure that we give the American people a choice to be able to do either."

Image | sean hobson | Quinn Dombrowski

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