The US Department of State is trialing a short-term pilot program allowing up to 25,000 people seeking to renew their US passport to do so online during the month of August, 2022.  While mail-in renewals not requiring a personal appearance at a passport acceptance office have been the norm for some time, there has never before been an online process available.

The program is open only to those over the age of 25 renewing a 10-year US “regular” (not diplomatic, official or service) passport and not requesting a change of name, gender date of birth, or place of birth.  You must be within a year of the expiration date, but your existing passport must not have been expired for more than five years to use the program.

Other requirements include having physical possession of the current, undamaged passport and not having reported it lost or stolen, residing in the US, being able to upload a digital passport photo as a .jpeg file, and being able to pay online by credit card or ACH.

Online applicants will need to be aware that filing immediately invalidates the current passport even if unexpired, and that processing time for the new passport will be roughly the same as for a mail-in process – so there will likely be a period of at least five weeks where an applicant will be unable to travel after submitted the online application.

Further information on the program is available here.