A lucky few thousand U.S. passport holders are eligible to try out a new State Department online passport renewal routine, with the entire process online and no need to mail in any documents. It’s a test of what may become routine by the end of this year.
The test is limited to the first 25,000 eligible applicants at the renewal site, which includes an FAQ and a button to start a mytravel.gov account. Once the account is verified, which may take up to 24 hours, you can log in to your account and start the application, which includes uploading a photo.
But the new procedure isn’t a shortcut to fast renewal; while the application is fast, the approval and mailing of a new passport or card will take the normal time, currently five to seven weeks.
An executive order signed by President Biden last December ordered the department to create a paperless online application system, but this week’s announcement is the first word on how it would be implemented.
Eligibility to try the new system is limited. For now, it’s only for renewals, and only if your current passport was issued within the past 10 years and is within a year of expiration. You must have been 16 or older when the old passport was issued. The system will work for both passports and passport cards, but can’t be used to switch from one to the other, although if you are renewing one you can add the other.
