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Check your passport before end of year

(Foxnews) If you travel overseas a lot, now may be a good time to take a close look at your passport.

The State Department said Thursday that starting Jan. 1 it will no longer offer the 24-page inserts you can buy when you run out of pages to existing passport books.

Adults running out of space for new visas in their 28-page passports will have to pay $110 for a new passport of either 28 or 52 pages. The prices are slightly lower for minors—but passports for children 16 and under are only valid for 5 years, as opposed to 10 years for adults.

The decision was made “to enhance the security of the passport and to abide by international passport standards,” the department said in a press release.

Anyone applying for a new passport will get the old one back. Though the passport will be canceled, any unused visas in the old book will still be valid, Cocks said.

According to the State Department, about 38 percent of American citizens have passports and more than 15 million U.S. passports issued in 2015.

But you still have until the end of the year to request those extra pages.

Posted by
1068 posts

I ended up just getting a new passport as well. To pay the extra money for just one more year of use made little sense to me.

Posted by
926 posts

My son's passport expires in December. We are going to Germany and Spain in June (return home June 24th). Should I go ahead and renew or wait until we get back?

Posted by
9110 posts

The Schengen Zone (which includes Germany & Spain) requires three months validity, so your son's current passport is valid for a June trip.