Are you planning to travel internationally this year? Then, ensure your passport is up to date. Yes! The U.S. State Department is urging travelers to renew passports early back in September, which is Passport Awareness Month.
About 49 million passports are set to expire within the next three years, according to a New York Times report. Government officials are expecting a flood of renewal requests through 2018.
Renewing a passport can be done by mail and it may cost around $110. First-time holders need to apply in person at a designated court, post office or other agency that handles passport requests by paying a fee of around $135. Experts say that renewals will take about six weeks in 2016.
Millions of people applied for passports in 2006 and 2007 because new rules came into force and it required all U.S. citizens to use a passport when travelling to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean. As a result, nearly 17 Million passports were issued in 2006-2007 alone. Now, all those passports are about to expire and need renewal.
The New York Times reported Michele Bond, assistant secretary of State for Consular Affairs, as saying that they were overwhelmed then, and they are not going to be overwhelmed again.
Renew your passport, using travel.state.gov
Source: New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/travel/passport-renewal.html)
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