U.S. Passport Fees Going Up: Hurry Up and Renew!
U.S. passport fees will rise sharply on Tuesday, July 13, the State Department announced earlier this week.
That will be costly for anyone getting their first passport or renewing their existing one. New passports will cost $135, a 35 percent increase over their current $100 fee. And renewals will cost $110, up 47 percent from the current fee of $75.
The obvious tip: Get yourself to a passport office, pronto, and beat the price increases. Most folks who already have passports can renew via mail with a form available at the State Department's website. Do that if your passport is only a few months away from expiring.
Never had a passport? You can easily get one at an office near you. Then you'll be ready to book that flight in a hurry, should the euro drop to such dramatically low levels against the dollar that you can't afford not to hit up Paris.
The State Department is also pushing a "convenient and less expensive" passport card for cruisers and drivers who limit their travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. It currently costs $45 for a first-time applicant and $20 for a renewal, with those prices going up to $55 and $30 as of Tuesday. But you can't use it for any international air travel, so really what's the point? Just go for the full passport book. Then start looking up airfare deals and take it for a spin. On your first night abroad, you'll be able to dine out on the money you'll save by pushing the passport process.
Photo by hjl on Flickr.
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