Expatrian

The US just rolled out a pilot program this month to allow online passport renewal. Key points:

1. It’s limited to 25,000 volunteers this month, but should be fully rolled out later this year
2. You don’t have to send any forms or your old passport in (but your current passport will be invalidated once you apply)
3. Processing times are about the same and expedited service is still available
4. There’s a passport photo upload/cropping tool built in

Seems like a step in the right direction. #4 is definitely a nice convenience compared to before. #2 I like being able to keep my last passort on hand (even if invaildated) without risking it being lost in the mail.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...ew-online.html

PetrifiedExPat

Great news and long overdue. Credit where it is due!

jjmb

We renewed our passports online earlier this year. The only difference was that we had to send in our old passports which were returned a couple of days after the new ones arrived.

Expatrian

And next time you’ll also need to be careful not to mix up your old and current passports before traveling because the old ones won’t be getting holes punched in them anymore! I keep my last expired passport as a backup because it’s still valid proof of ID and citizenship in many situations. Anything older than that I scan and destroy.

Pulaski

I still have a hole punch in my desk - I guess I shall just have to punch the Pulaski family's old passports myself in future.

morpeth

There are collectors of old passports, have seen a few worth over $800.

Pulaski

Like baseball cards, old magazines, and other "collectables", I would suggest that there might be a large deviation between "price" and "worth".

tht

their “worth” night depend on how easily they can be used for forgeries… I would not let any stranger have a document like that… I have a few now in the fire safe including from West Germany that no longer exists and one of the the “real” black ones (with holes in the front) from the UK that they did Brexit to go back to and then just copied the US’s blue color when attempting to go back to black… which is annoying as I thought that would be the way to know which was which… https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/r...blue-6b9fz2g58

Expatrian

I’m not famous 😂

morpeth

Quite true, though for baseball card there is quite a vibrant market in the USA, very liquid for quality cards. An interesting aspect of passports like other older documents is any revenue or similar stamps- those by themselves can have significant value at times.

jkeller

10 or so years ago I saw Ray Bolger's(scarecrow Wizard of Oz) passport on eBay. I don't know how much it went for. There are a lot of estate sales passports on eBay.


It's time US passport applications go paperless. Just last year when I renewed mine, I still had to staple my photo to the renewal form.😀

morpeth

Well maybe- someime a lot easier just deal with paper application or in person.

Pulaski

Ahem! Please try to keep up! ..... Posted today, here on BE, in the same subforum as this thread, at 11.29am. EST.

tht

do they “punch” here, not “clip” like the UK?

https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/11/mums-passport-wrongly-clipped-days-before-4000-family-holiday-17166236

Expatrian

Yep, two holes through the front cover.