Online Passport Renewal

[conversationalphrase]

It is time to renew my U.S. passport and I stumbled across a pilot program for online renewal.


https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/renew-online.html



It appears to limit the amount of applications each month, so I would need to wait until October. It seems easier than mailing in the application including a passport photo, since it allows a digital photo upload.



Does anyone have experience with online renewal? Any glitches or issues?

 

[euro]

It is time to renew my U.S. passport and I stumbled across a pilot program for online renewal.


https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/renew-online.html



It appears to limit the amount of applications each month, so I would need to wait until October. It seems easier than mailing in the application including a passport photo, since it allows a digital photo upload.



Does anyone have experience with online renewal? Any glitches or issues?

I have no experience with this program, so my comment is completely based on past interactions. The Federal Government agencies are consistently a decade or two behind on their IT resources. I have NEVER encountered a Fed online system that worked well, was easy to use, and led to a good user experience. This is true for Treasury Direct, IRS, SS, Health Insurance, etc. My DW used to work for the Department of Agriculture and confirms that this is true for ANY interface - possibly even worse for the internal facing ones.
So, I would say that it is a good thing that they are trying to put passport renewals online. If you don't have any travel plans in the near future and would like to help them out by beta testing, then :'go for it!". However, if there is any sort of timeline connected to your renewal, I would go for the (slow but) tried and true process of renewal by mail. Yes, it is pretty slow, but I just renewed my passport by mail earlier this year and it worked great.
I'm assuming that the biggest advantage of electronic renewal is that you can use the old passport while the new one is processed (that is NOT the case for renewal by mail, because you have to send in the old one, so you are stuck WITHOUT passport for a few months). That is, as long as the old one is not yet expired...

 

[conversationalphrase]

I have no experience with this program, so my comment is completely based on past interactions. The Federal Government agencies are consistently a decade or two behind on their IT resources. I have NEVER encountered a Fed online system that worked well, was easy to use, and led to a good user experience. This is true for Treasury Direct, IRS, SS, Health Insurance, etc. My DW used to work for the Department of Agriculture and confirms that this is true for ANY interface - possibly even worse for the internal facing ones.
So, I would say that it is a good thing that they are trying to put passport renewals online. If you don't have any travel plans in the near future and would like to help them out by beta testing, then :'go for it!". However, if there is any sort of timeline connected to your renewal, I would go for the (slow but) tried and true process of renewal by mail. Yes, it is pretty slow, but I just renewed my passport by mail earlier this year and it worked great.
I'm assuming that the biggest advantage of electronic renewal is that you can use the old passport while the new one is processed (that is NOT the case for renewal by mail, because you have to send in the old one, so you are stuck WITHOUT passport for a few months). That is, as long as the old one is not yet expired...

I agree with your comments regarding U.S. Gov't web interfaces, in fact I was not entirely surprised to find the common renewal method is still via physical mail.



My apprehension motivated my post. I don't want to be a Beta tester unless others report the process works well.



My passport is not expired and I don't have any planned international travel, so I can be patient.

 

[braumeister]

I think it will be fine, based on my experience of online renewal of Global Entry/NEXUS cards. But don't you still have to mail in your old passport so they can invalidate it?

I have a number of old passports that have been cancelled, so they make nice souvenirs.

 

[tony554]

It is time to renew my U.S. passport and I stumbled across a pilot program for online renewal.


https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/renew-online.html



It appears to limit the amount of applications each month, so I would need to wait until October. It seems easier than mailing in the application including a passport photo, since it allows a digital photo upload.



Does anyone have experience with online renewal? Any glitches or issues?

My wife participated early in the online pilot to renew her passport and it was a smooth process. Snap a digital photo, fill out an online form, upload it and pay the fees with a credit card. 6 weeks later her new passport arrived in the mail. The only negative part of the process was the lack of communication about where it was in the processing step. I believe after submission it showed “processing” and it remained that status until it arrived. I hope the option is available when I need to renew mine—simpler and less time consuming than the standard method.

 

[conversationalphrase]

My wife participated early in the online pilot to renew her passport and it was a smooth process. Snap a digital photo, fill out an online form, upload it and pay the fees with a credit card. 6 weeks later her new passport arrived in the mail. The only negative part of the process was the lack of communication about where it was in the processing step. I believe after submission it showed “processing” and it remained that status until it arrived. I hope the option is available when I need to renew mine—simpler and less time consuming than the standard method.

Thank you! Good information.

 

[single2019]

I'm assuming that the biggest advantage of electronic renewal is that you can use the old passport while the new one is processed (that is NOT the case for renewal by mail, because you have to send in the old one, so you are stuck WITHOUT passport for a few months). That is, as long as the old one is not yet expired...

I also renewed my passport by mail recently. While the new passport came in 6 weeks, the old one was returned after 12 weeks. Now why did I care about the old passport? It had valid visas.