🗂️Keep in Mind I Renewed My US Passport Online, and Wow That Was Quick

[_=*Croft*=_]

Travelers rejoice: The State Department has announced that online passport renewal is now available to all. I renewed my passport on the first day the system was open to the general public, and the process went smoothly—although I had some trouble taking my own photos at first. (I figured it out, and I'll give you some tips below.)

If this sounds like it might not be entirely new, that’s because online passport renewal was originally announced in 2021, paused in 2023, and reopened in “beta” version earlier this summer. Now, the State Department says that passports are being processed in one-third the time that they took at this time last year, and are well under the six to eight weeks that renewals are typically expected to take.

How to renew your U.S. passport online​

First, head to Travel.State.Gov/renewonline. There, you’ll see a list of steps:

1. 
   Confirm you meet the requirements.
   
   
2. 
   Create your account.
   
   
3. 
   Start your application.
   
   
4. 
   Enter your most recent passport info.
   
   
5. 
   Enter travel plans.
   
   
6. 
   Upload digital photo.
   
   
7. 
   Sign and pay.
   
   
8. 
   Enroll in email updates.
   

I recommend keeping that page open while you go through the process, since at first you’ll need to bounce among a few different websites. You’ll need to create an account at login.gov, then go back to travel.state.gov to begin renewing your passport. At the end of the process, it will send you to pay.gov to make a credit or debit card payment.

Who is eligible to renew their passport online?​

There’s a long list of requirements, so make sure to read through them all. Among the important ones:

• 
  You are aged 25 or older.
  
  
• 
  Your passport either expires in the next year, or has not been expired for more than five years. (Another way of putting it: Your old passport was issued between nine and 15 years ago.)
  
  
• 
  You are not changing your name, gender, date of birth, or place of birth.
  
  
• 
  You have your old passport in front of you.
  

I also noticed, when renewing mine, that I was not able to add a passport card to my order, since I didn’t have a passport card to start with. I only had a book, so I was only able to renew the book.

How long does it take to renew your passport online?​

It took me about 30 minutes to renew my passport, including about 10 to 15 minutes to take a photo and make sure it was cropped and adjusted correctly.

The processing time is officially the same as for a renewal by mail—six to eight weeks. (That said, the State Department says it's processing them a lot quicker these days.) You can’t use the expedited service online.

I got my passport 17 days after submitting the online request for renewal—so about two and a half weeks. That's less than half the time I was asked to budget. I was pleasantly surprised that the statement about quick processing was correct.

How much does it cost to renew your passport online?​

The fee is $130 for a regular or large passport book. I didn’t have a passport card to renew, but the fee for a passport card is $30, according to the State Department. (You can see the full fee schedule here.)

Can you apply for a passport for the first time online?​

Nope, this service is for renewals only. It’s also worth noting that you won’t be able to use your old passport while you’re waiting for the new one. Your old passport is automatically canceled when you put in the request for the new one. So make sure you apply for renewal when you don’t have international travel coming up. (Or use the expedited service, which is not available online.)

What information will I need to renew my passport online?​

I just did it, and the website asked me for the following information (besides my name and address):

• 
  My passport number
  
  
• 
  My social security number
  
  
• 
  My height, eye color, hair color, and occupation
  
  
• 
  The ICN, or inventory control number, from the inside back cover of the passport
  
  
• 
  My credit or debit card information, for payment
  

Can you take your own digital photos to renew your passport online?​

Yes! The system is very picky about the photos, as you may have guessed from how they are with traditional passport applications. The photo requirements are here, but the absolute safest way to be sure you’re doing it right is to go to a place that offers passport photo services. (I got my previous set done at a drugstore.)

It'll ask you to take a photo in front of a plain, light-colored background, with no shadows on your face or behind you on the wall. Your eyes need to be open, you can’t be smiling, and you can’t wear anything on your face or head except religious headgear. The photo also needs to be taken from far enough away that it includes your shoulders and upper torso.

I had a harder time with this than I expected. A plain light background, with no objects visible behind me? I tried a few walls in my house before I found one that would work, in a bathroom. They say no selfies, but I put my phone on a tripod and took a video. (Then I replayed the video, paused it, and took a screenshot.) My finished photo looked exactly like the examples they gave—or so I thought.

When you upload your photo, the system automatically crops it. Even though the examples are all tall rectangular photos, the automatic crop is a tight square. You can adjust it, and I did, but no matter what I did the system rejected my photo, saying that the "overall image quality" was bad.

The example photos were more brightly lit, so I went to Instagram, uploaded my photo to the Stories tool, and chose the Melbourne filter. (Same idea as this hack to smooth photos with the Paris filter; just keep swiping until you get Melbourne, or whatever filter makes your photo look the passport-iest.) When I uploaded it to the passport site, I let the crop tool do whatever it did by default. That went through.
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