US citizens will now be able to renew their passports online, a senior State Department official announced Wednesday.
“This is a new service that will allow Americans to pay to upload photos and apply entirely online, without having to appear in person or send documents by mail,” Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitar said, adding that “it will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
The service is open to adults who are renewing a regular 10-year passport that has expired in the past five years or is set to expire next year. At this time, the online passport renewal service is only available to Americans with a US address.
The service will be available at travel.state.gov and customers will be able to “walk through a few questions to make sure they are eligible to use this service,” Bitter said.
“Our estimate is that 5 million Americans will be able to use this service each year,” he said, adding that the agency plans to expand it.
“This won’t be our last try. We want to see how this goes and then we’ll start looking at ways to expand this service to more U.S. citizens in the coming months and years,” Bitter said.
He said the program has been in beta testing for several months and “we’ve had great feedback from customers.”
Bitar said the passport renewal processing time is six to eight weeks, which is “a historical minimum.”
“We don’t expect a different standard of service for people applying online and people applying by mail. We just want to make sure we give the American people the option to choose either option,” he said.
“The advantage of online passport renewal is that it’s a more convenient service,” Bitar said.