If you've been procrastinating about getting or renewing your passport, it's time to get going because fees are rising soon. Of course this won't stop me from traveling or renewing but I know the psychological deterrant this move can have on people who arent exposed to travel.
Adult passport book fees will jump to $135 from $100 while those for minors will increase to $105 from $85 starting July 13.
Renewals fees on adult passports will shoot up to $110 from $75, according to the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. Twenty-four other fees, ranging from judicial services to reporting the births of American children born abroad, also are changing.
Blame it on technology. The "switch to the e-passport with the chip and the additional security features are what is increasing the costs," said John Echard, a spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. "It's a lot more expensive to make passports now than it used to be."
Since October 2006 new passports and renewals have an electronic chip embedded in the cover that carries all the information in the passport as well as facial-recognition data. (Glad I got my passport in 2003 even though I will have to renew eventually) Your passport picture is digitally mapped and stored on the chip and when the book is swiped, the information shows up on a computer screen for the screener. Not surprisingly, the government refers to this new version as an e-passport.
The covers are considerably thicker than the old-style passport, and the pages adorned with historic Americana sketches. There is an international symbol on the cover that alerts screeners that it's an e-passport.
There's a new charge that frequent international travelers won't like: $82 for additional passport visa pages. It used to be free but Echard said it's a time-consuming process to add pages, which is done by trained staff by hand. (OUCH)
Passports typically have 24 pages but frequent travelers can request 52 pages at the onset free of charge.
Passport card fees also are rising, to $55 from $45 for adults and $40 from $35 for children. Passport cards look like a driver's license and allow you to enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-call. They're typically used by border residents who travel in and out of the country for work.
Fees paid to the Bureau of Consular Affairs cover the costs of everything from making and issuing passports to helping Americans bring home relatives who died overseas or assisting crime victims. The bureau also is in charge of evacuating U.S. citizen in the event of a natural disaster.
Last year those services totaled an estimated $300 million, Echard said.
Last month, the State Department also rewrote its policy on changing the gender designation in a passport, for transgender people. The rules now call for a doctor's note explaining that the person is in clinical treatment for gender transition. The old policy required sexual reassignment surgery before a gender change could be made on a passport.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/get-you...2010-07-03
Adult passport book fees will jump to $135 from $100 while those for minors will increase to $105 from $85 starting July 13.
Renewals fees on adult passports will shoot up to $110 from $75, according to the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. Twenty-four other fees, ranging from judicial services to reporting the births of American children born abroad, also are changing.
Blame it on technology. The "switch to the e-passport with the chip and the additional security features are what is increasing the costs," said John Echard, a spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. "It's a lot more expensive to make passports now than it used to be."
Since October 2006 new passports and renewals have an electronic chip embedded in the cover that carries all the information in the passport as well as facial-recognition data. (Glad I got my passport in 2003 even though I will have to renew eventually) Your passport picture is digitally mapped and stored on the chip and when the book is swiped, the information shows up on a computer screen for the screener. Not surprisingly, the government refers to this new version as an e-passport.
The covers are considerably thicker than the old-style passport, and the pages adorned with historic Americana sketches. There is an international symbol on the cover that alerts screeners that it's an e-passport.
There's a new charge that frequent international travelers won't like: $82 for additional passport visa pages. It used to be free but Echard said it's a time-consuming process to add pages, which is done by trained staff by hand. (OUCH)
Passports typically have 24 pages but frequent travelers can request 52 pages at the onset free of charge.
Passport card fees also are rising, to $55 from $45 for adults and $40 from $35 for children. Passport cards look like a driver's license and allow you to enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-call. They're typically used by border residents who travel in and out of the country for work.
Fees paid to the Bureau of Consular Affairs cover the costs of everything from making and issuing passports to helping Americans bring home relatives who died overseas or assisting crime victims. The bureau also is in charge of evacuating U.S. citizen in the event of a natural disaster.
Last year those services totaled an estimated $300 million, Echard said.
Last month, the State Department also rewrote its policy on changing the gender designation in a passport, for transgender people. The rules now call for a doctor's note explaining that the person is in clinical treatment for gender transition. The old policy required sexual reassignment surgery before a gender change could be made on a passport.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/get-you...2010-07-03
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