Everything You Need To Know About US Passport Renewal

Apr 19, 2019

Things-You-Need-To-Know-About-Passport-Renewal

Everything you should know about renewing your passport

Have you been looking for information on “how to renew the passport” and have you been successful? If you are one of those interested in renewing your passport, this piece is for you. Here’s the guide to renewing your passport in the shortest possible time. Whether you need to apply for a passport agency, apply for a renewal, the expiration date is approaching, you have travel plans soon or you simply want to renew it because you have already exceeded the expiration date.

There are different processes to which you can apply depending on the type of case. However, not every passport can be renewed. It must comply with each of the passport renewal eligibility criteria so that renewal can be processed.

Let’s take a look at each of the cases, and how you should proceed:

What do you need to renew your passport?

The first thing you have to consider if you want a new passport is their eligibility requirements. Each case is different, and if a situation is not present in the following cases, then we will tell you later how to proceed.

Moreover, for this, you should have a brief idea of how long does passport renewal take or what do I need to renew my passport? You can either pay the passport renewal fee online or pay it when you are renewing passport offline.

Your passport can’t be more than 5 years from its expiration date. That is, 15 years since it was issued, don’t wait till last moment to renew it.
Your passport must be in your possession.If you, unfortunately, lost your passport on a business trip, you have been robbed or you just can’t find it then you have to carry out the passport replacement process, not the renewal.
You must have been at least 16 when you got your last passport.The passport renewal process is not used under 16 child passports. Children who are minors have to opt for the renewal of the passport for minors, which will be valid for 5 more years. If you turned 16 since you took your last passport you can opt for an adult Passport.

If you do not comply with all the above requirements then you have to proceed to carry out the procedure in person using the form DS-11.

Renewal process

If you have already examined the passport eligibility criteria and you are a candidate for the renewal, then you only need to comply with two very important stages of the process. The first is the document gathering, this list includes all the documents necessary to renew your passport regardless of the process you do to process it, these documents are the following:

One passport photo.
A photocopy of your driver license or other state-issued ID (front and back) clearly mentioning your date of birth
Your current US passport
You have to complete your Passport Renewal Application Form (DS-82) online or you can complete it offline.
You must pay your Passport Renewal Fee – this cost $110 and $170 if you need expedited service. Expedited Service Will Cost an extra $60. It has to be addressed to “US Department of State”
If you made a name change since the last time your passport was issued you must comply with a certified copy of the name change copy. This document will be sent back to you in a separate mail.

Some examples are:

Marriage Certificate
Divorce Decree
Court-ordered name change document

After you have all the documents there are three different ways to continue the procedure:

Mail– you can send your passport renewal application so that it can be processed by the National Passport Center.
If you are in a hurry and need to accelerate the whole process you can go to a Passport Expediting Company. You only have to send your documents to of these companies so that they can expedite your process.
If you like to do your own paperwork you can always go to a Passport Agency.Passport acceptance facility is authorized by the U.S. Department of State to accept and verify the documents, signature, and identity for passport applications.

Passport renewal through Post Office

You can also apply for your passport directly from the post office. You just have to make sure to call to schedule an appointment. Many people just go to the post office without realizing this. If you do this, not only will you save a lot of time, you will also make sure you arrive on time for the interview. It is important that you plan this very well, especially if you live in a large city, the number of post offices in the US has decreased and the vast majority of it is overwhelmed by the demand of people applying for their passports.

How long does a passport last

The duration of your passport will depend on the date on which it was issued.If your age was less than 16 when you got your passport, it will be valid for 5 years.If your passport was issued when you were 16 or older than your passport is valid for 10 years.

However, it is always recommended when making travel plans orinternational travels to have more than 6 months of validity in your passportto allow you to travel to that country. Some airlines will prevent you from traveling if the validity period of your passport is less than 6 since you arrived in that country.

The duration of your passport will depend on the date on which it was issued. If your age was less than 16 when you got your passport, it will be valid for 5 years. If your passport was issued when you were 16 or older than your passport is valid for 10 years.

However, it is always recommended when making travel plans or international travels to have more than 6 months of validity in your passport to allow you to travel to that country. Some airlines will prevent you from traveling if the validity period of your passport is less than 6 since you arrived in that country.

How long does it take to renew a passport?

Each of these processes has different duration times. If you decided to make your passport renewal by mail, processing times are approximately 8 weeks to obtain your passport.Nonetheless, if you decided to do an expedited process by mail it will take around 2-3 weeks but at an additional cost to renew passport i.e., $60.

The fastest way to renew your passport.

For fast passport renewal, you can choose to contact aPassport Agency or a passport expediting company.

However, if you want to attend in person it is always advisable to call theNational Passport Information Center.There are currently 26 locations across the whole country and you can get the data online.

If you have travel plans or international flights and urgently need the passport expediting companies is the best option.They can give you your passport in a time of 24 hours without having to personally attend in person.

Always bear in mind that having your passport up to date is essential since you will not know when you will need to use it in an emergency.

Pramod Ram

Digital Marketing Strategist

Pramod Ram heads the Online Marketing and Content Marketing Team at Claim Flights GmbH. He loves to travel, read books, watch movies and do intensive research.