Our passports are expiring soon. I see there is now an option to "renew" an existing passport instead of getting a new one. Has anyone tried this yet? Is it the same amount of work/cost as getting a new one? I see a photo still has to be summitted. Here is the link if any one wants to check it out: Renew my Passport Online
Just did my passport renewal. Still have to mail the passport with photos and a printed out form. Mine took 6 weeks on the dot. That said, I met all the criteria but did the process before the online option appeared, looking at the dates again.
I did get my old passport returned to me in a separate mailing, with holes punched through it to invalidate. In the older paper process, I think it's automatic? Or you check a box on the form? It does take a couple more weeks to get the old one back - I think I got mine about 9 weeks, rather than the new one at 6 weeks
Well, we just went through the ON-LINE renewal last night. Today is 18 weeks out from our trip. Non-rush is 8-11 weeks and the cost ($130) is the same as mail-in renewal or going to the post office. For an extra $60 the time is cut to 5-7 weeks. You don't have to submit your old passport. The portal actually closed to ON-LINE renewals on 2/7 but since we had created our US mygovtravel account prior to the 7th it still allowed us to proceed. The web site claims it will re-open in March., since this was a trial run. The process...fairly simple you have to fill in your name, personal info, contact info, a couple of times and submit an electronic image. Images are submitted electronically in JPEG. White/off white back ground, no over exposure, etc, there is a page for how to do this. We selected about half dozen of each of us (took a lot more), used natural light, an digital SLR camera etc. For every photo we tried to submit there was a caution that it might get rejected because of .....etc. Finally just rolled the dice and submitted the ones we thought were best. The pictures were "accepted" but still have to be reviewed by an actual person. (It has to be better quality/easier than printing a pic, or phot paper, to the right size and stapling it to a card, right??, like the mail-in renewal process). So...fingers crossed....that we don't have to begin the expedited process about five weeks out.
