As prices rise for gas, food and electricity, the U.S. State Department wants to join in by raising the price of new, and renewal of passports by $20.
TravelPulse.com is reporting , “The U.S. Department of State will begin raising the cost of new and renewed passports by $20 beginning December 27.
According to Travel+Leisure, travelers will now have to pay $130 instead of $110 in order to apply for a passport or to renew an existing one, along with a $35 execution fee for a grand total of $165. Other fees include a $60 fee to expedite passport applications.
The news comes a week after President Joe Biden signed an executive order for the government to design a new digital way to renew a passport. This is likely to take a year to implement, but it should expedite the process significantly since the majority of people renew their passports by mail, which can take longer.
The Global Passport Index has also recently identified the United States as having the best passport in the world this year.
Travelers who will be traveling internationally in the new year are advised to apply for or renew their passports before December 27 to save some money.
For more information about applying for and renewing your passport, please visit the U.S. Department of State website.”
I can’t tell you how many people I know who were getting ready to take trip suddenly discovered their passport was about to expire! I just looked at mine and noticed the expiration date is the end of December, 2021!
I plan on traveling overseas in 2022 so I’m going to save $20 and get my passport renewed by the December 27th deadline.
For the full details of the story mentioned in this post, click on the link below:
https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/state-department-to-raise-cost-of-passports.html