State Department announces Americans can now renew passports online

The State Department unveiled a new online portal on Wednesday that will now allow Americans to renew their passports virtually.

The new program will be available 24/7 for adult applicants with a United States address, who are renewing a 10-year passport that has expired within the past five years, or renewing passports that will expire in the coming year.

“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,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter said in a statement to CNN.

Bitter said the department intends to expand the program, but expects up to five million people will be able to use it per year as-is. The service will be available through travel.state.gov, and has already been in beta testing for several months.

“This is not going to be the last thing that we do. 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,” Bitter said. “We don’t expect to have a different service standard for people who apply online versus people who apply by mail. We just want to make sure that we give the American people a choice to be able to do either."

The portal will not renew passports for children, first-time applicants, or renewal applicants who live outside the United States so far, according to the Associated Press.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.