Is your U.S. passport set to expire this year or next? If so, the State Department urges that you renew it immediately, the New York Times reports.
Officials anticipate that it will receive a high number of renewals this year because of the issuing of 10-year passports in 2006 and 2007. During that time, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative went into effect – requiring that Americans flying from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda have passports.
Because of this, officials hope to avoid delays in issuing renewed passports. Additionally, there’s been an increase in first-time applicants living in states that don’t comply with the Real ID Act. However, the deadline to comply with that law was recently extended to 2018.
Passports renewals will take about six weeks (or longer) to process in 2016 at a cost of $110 or $135.
