Travelers
rejoice:
Online
passport
renewal
will
be
rolling
out
for
most
Americans
next
year.

The
U.S.
State
Department tested
online
renewal
with
two
pilot
programs
this
year—one
for
federal
employees
and
contractors,
and
another
for
25,000
members
of
the
public—and
has
deemed
those
trials
a
success,
the New
York
Times’
Debra
Kamin
reports.
A
third
pilot
program
will
begin
later
this
month,
but
officials
intend
to
make
the
option
available
to
all
travelers
sometime
in
early
2023.

The
online
renewal
option
comes
on
the
heels
of
President
Joe
Biden’s December
2021
executive
order
directing
the
federal
government
to
implement
services
that
are
“simple
to
use,
accessible,
equitable,
protective,
transparent
and
responsive
for
all
people.”

As
it
stands
now,
the passport
renewal
process
is
cumbersome
and
time-consuming.
Many
travelers
can
request
renewal
by
mail,
but
they
must
still
print,
fill
out
and
submit
several
documents;
print
photographs
that
meet
very
specific
sizing
and
resolution
requirements;
and
send
a
check
or
money
order
to
cover
the
cost.

For
some
individuals,
however,
even
the
mail-in
method
isn’t
an
option.
Those
travelers—including
first-time
applicants,
people
under
the
age
of
16
and
those
whose
passports
were
lost
or
stolen—must
wait
in
long
lines
at
passport
offices.

State
Department
officials
hope
online
renewal
will
help
ease
long
wait
times,
which
have
become
the
norm
since
the
start
of
the
pandemic
because
of
layoffs
and
passport
office
closures.
Though
processing
times
are starting
to
get
faster,
federal
officials
are
still
working
through
a
hefty
backlog.

“As
with
many
services,
our
passport
operations
are
still
recovering
from
the
pandemic’s
impact,”
Rena
Bitter,
assistant
secretary
for
consular
affairs
at
the
State
Department,
tells
the Washington
Post’s
Natalie
B.
Compton.

Still,
strict
rules
limit
who
can
renew
their
passport
online:
Applicants
must
be
at
least
25
years
old,
for
instance,
and
their
passport
must
have
been
issued
between
9
and
15
years
ago—and
the
online
process
involves
multiple,
at-times
confusing
steps.

“[A]s
it’s
designed
right
now,
it’s
a
little
bit
clunky,”
says
Anthony
Berklich,
a
travel
adviser
and
founder
of
the
travel
platform Inspired
Citizen,
to
the

New
York
Times.

The
renewal
fee
is
not
any
cheaper
online—it’s
still
$130
for
adults
and
$135
for
children—and
at
least
for
now,
the
processing
time
is
not
any
faster
than
renewing
by
mail.

Kendry
Dupree,
a
travel
agent
for Allure
Vacations,
tells USA
Today’s
Kathleen
Wong
that
online
renewal
is
still
“better
for
the
American
travelers,”
adding
that
it
“reduces
the
hassle”
inherent
in
traditional
renewal
methods.

But
federal
officials
hope
the
new
system
will
eventually
streamline
the
process—and,
ideally,
shorten
wait
times.
The
State
Department
is
also
holding
a
series
of passport
fairs
around
the
country,
primarily
to
help
first-timers
and
children
get
their
passports.

Artikel ini diambil dari https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-to-renew-your-passport-online-180980824/