Passport Renewals Are Available Online Again

After a multi-year pause, passport renewals are available online again.

The updated program has been in development for over two years since President Biden signed an executive order in 2021. This order permitted the State Department to create an online passport renewal system, part of the Biden administration’s recovery efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic, which subsequently paused international travel.

Section 4 of the order reads, “Agency Actions to Improve Customer Experience. (a) The Secretary of State shall design and deliver a new online passport renewal experience that does not require any physical documents to be mailed.”

The beta rollout reveals that eligible United States citizens can renew their passports online during a limited midday window each day. Subsequently, the window closes once the customer limit is reached. If customers are unable to start their application, they should try on another day. Users can also renew by email.

The State Department first launched a pilot program for online passport renewals in 2022. It was halted “to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it before we roll it out in a bigger way,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.

The State Department has brought back its system for online passport renewals. Only certain people qualify for online renewals. https://t.co/CAw3PLcQIK

— WFMY News 2 (@WFMY) June 14, 2024

“With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,” Blinken told a House subcommittee later. He added that due to the pandemic, the government had to let its contracted employees go, and staff was reassigned to handle a mounting number of passport applications. This led to a delay in processing. Thus, by 2023, United States citizens faced a backup of passport applications.

Per The Associated Press, the department said that people who want to renew their passport online must meet several essential requirements. The first is that their passport has been valid for 10 years (issued between 2009 and 2015), they are 25 or older, and they are not changing their name, gender, or place of birth. 

The number of applications accepted each day will be limited. The website will be ready for a full launch soon. Travelers looking to submit an online passport application must also have or create a MyTravelGov account.