State Department goes big with online passport renewal

Millions of Americans needing to renew their passports can now do so online instead of mailing the State Department paper documents with a check. 

The department announced Wednesday that its online system is now open after months of limited testing and years of pilots. 

“We are really excited that we are now making available online passport renewal,” Rena Bitter, assistant secretary for consular affairs, told reporters Wednesday. “This is a new service which will allow Americans to pay, to upload a photo and to apply completely online with no need to appear in person or to send documents through the mail.”

State estimates that up to 5 million Americans will be able to use the service annually. Last year, the department renewed 9.6 million passports.

The online service is currently limited to renewals for adult, 10-year passports that have expired within the last five years or will expire in the coming year, said Bitter. It also isn’t available for those needing expedited service, anyone not living in the United States or people changing details like their name or gender.

“We want to make sure that we get this right, so this is where we’re starting,” she said. 

Although the online option is meant for convenience, it won’t get anyone their passports any faster or be any cheaper than renewing by mail, said Bitter. Passport processing times ballooned during the pandemic, although the department says that they’re now seeing below six- to eight-week timelines. 

The announcement follows months of limited testing of a public beta version of the tool, during which the department was closing the tool after it reached certain thresholds of applications and making changes based on customer feedback. State also previously piloted online applications in 2022. 

The big change now is the number of applications the system will be able to take in, said Bitter. Long-term, the department says the tool will be open to more types of situations and people.

“We will expand this. This is not going to be the last thing that we do,” said Bitter. “We want to see how this goes and then we’ll start looking at ways to continue to make this service available to more American citizens in the coming months and years.”

The department is casting the update as part of its broader efforts to modernize and remove administrative barriers for people interacting with the department. The move to online renewals was included in a 2021 executive order on customer experience. 

“Our goal, of course, is to get away from paper as much as we can, as quickly as possible,” said Bitter. “This is a first step in what we hope will be a much longer-term process to be able to modernize the systems that we’re using.”