Frommers "If You Need a US Passport In the Next Year, You'd Better Apply Now"

Hi Lindy,

Saw this article and came to forum to post but noticed that you already had.

I am going to be needing. a new passport soon and hoping to apply online as soon as I am allowed to which will be the last day of March. .

I was hoping to go to Tokyo in October and take a cruise but concerned that I may not get my new passport back in time to carefully plan a cruise for October 2025.

Thank you for this. I sent it to our son as his passport expires soon.

Sounds like Chicken Little and the falling sky, but only time will tell.

Just a friendly reminder that you do not have to renew your passport online if you are not within the window to do so. You can renew at any time using paper forms and mailing them in. Pre-printed paper forms are available at any local passport acceptance facility (USPS, and some universities, libraries, and local governments). State Department is showing a processing time for routine processing at 4-6 weeks and expedited at 2-3 weeks.

Thank you for the friendly reminder CL

It is actually not that easy for me to get out and about given where I live and my limitations which includes not driving.

I was hoping to renew online for the convenience.

But in saying all that,. I still manage to get it together to take my one cruise a year.

I’ll be traveling internationally this Spring, returning home on 4/20. My husband and I will be traveling internationally from 8/31 - 11/17. Our passports expire 2/1/26. I’m sure hoping that if we do the online renewal our new passports will arrive on time.

The staff could be reduced in the coming months, so if I needed a passport, I would certainly be getting on with it.

I live in Washington DC and don't think the article is particularly alarmist. No one knows what's going to happen amidst the chaos. As far as I know, personnel at the Passport Office were not excluded from the buyout offer made to most non-military, non-postal and non-security federal employees. I think the buyout deal is currently suspended, due to one or more lawsuits.

Mine expires in November 2026, I'm pretty sure. So it might be too early for me to renew. I figured I'd do it this summer, after I get back from my trip to England in late May.

I would do it now but I’ll need it for my Spring trip. I had already made a note on my calendar to renew the day after I return home.

The Massachusetts Federal District Court just lifted the stay of the buyout offer. From the Washington Post:

Most of the 2.3 million federal workers are eligible, according to the White House. Agency heads may make exceptions, and military personnel, U.S. Postal Service employees, people working in immigration enforcement, national security and thousands of Veterans Affairs employees in direct care roles are exempt, according to OPM.

Edit to add: Last month I happened to notice that my passport expired this April. So on January 28 I submitted an online renewal. On January 30 I received notice that my credit card payment cleared and they were reviewing the application. I just received today, February 12 an email saying I had been approved and my new passport was being printed and prepared for mailing. So it looks like 3-4 weeks from beginning to end.

Sent in my passport renewal on 21 January via USPS, standard processing, and they arrived today. I used USPS with both applications in the same envelope because I wanted sequential numbers for my and my wife’s passports.

Just FYI: Consular affairs (the people who help you if something bad happens to you in another country, or even if you just lose your passport) are reportedly not to be included in the RIFS for the foreign service, and the person who told me that made the good point that passports are fee-based, so it's a reasonably good guess that staff cuts won't occur there. So one small piece of good news regarding government services.

Folks, I know it's hard, and sorry to have removed some lengthy and thoughtful posts, but we need to be trying a bit harder to steer clear of politics. I'm glad to support a thread that indicates the wisdom behind applying ahead of time for your passport, but this isn't enough of a reason to wander into the related politics driving the change. I know things are changing quickly, but this is still a travel forum, and most of us have all seen how things devolve once we let a thread get too far into politics. Thank you all. I'm closing the thread.