It just got easier to renew your passport online

A pilot program for online passport renewals has proved so successful, the State Department said, that it has increased the number of applications it can accept per day.

The State Department removed the time limits in place previously but warned that the system still might not be operational 24 hours a day.

The agency has been testing the renewal system since 2022. Over time, it has slowly expanded how many online applications it can handle each day. For the system’s mid-June relaunch, the public could submit materials starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Once the agency reached capacity, it would close the portal until the next day.

But senior State Department officials told The Washington Post in a phone call this week that the program has been running smoothly and now can administer larger volumes without interruption.

Since the agency reopened the portal this summer, it said, 175,000 people have successfully submitted applications. In the future, the State Department expects 5 million to 6 million online applications a year. (For context, the agency processed more than 24 million passport products in fiscal 2023.)

To be eligible for the online system, travelers must be U.S. citizens and residents 25 and older who have already had a passport with 10-year validity, among other requirements. Here are a few:

- Applicants can’t request a change to their name, gender, date of birth or place of birth.

- Applicants cannot be traveling internationally for at least eight weeks from the day they submit their application.

- Applicants must be applying only for a regular passport, and they possess their current passport. (It can’t be lost, stolen, damaged or mutilated.)

- Applicants can pay with a credit card or debit card, or an ACH (automated clearing house) payment, and are able to upload a digital passport photo in the JPEG file format.

- An applicant’s recent passport must have been issued between nine and 15 years before the application date. (It can be expired.)

The full requirements are available on the State Department website. Those who do not qualify for the online renewal process can still apply by mail.

Online renewal takes about 15 minutes to complete, agency officials said. The biggest advantage is that it saves applicants a trip to the post office and the extra delays of the mail. Whether you send by snail mail or virtually, though, the processing time is the same: six to eight weeks for standard service. The online pilot does not include expedited service, which reduces the processing time to two to three weeks.

The State Department shared user feedback on the online renewal system with The Post, including that of one commenter who said it took only 10 days from start (sending the application) to finish (the passport landing in their mailbox).

“This new online system is brilliant,” the traveler wrote. “Didn’t pay for expedited service, no trip to the post office necessary.”

The online renewal system was created in 2021 through an executive order by President Joe Biden. The State Department would not say how long beta-testing will continue, nor when the tool will become a permanent feature - beyond sometime “in the future.”

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Natalie Compton contributed to this report.