Travel – Eat – Sleep

When you’re traveling outside of the United States, you will need a passport as a definitive form of identification. If you have let your passport expire, or it?s been ten years since you have gotten it, you will need to renew your passport in order to keep this important document current.

Very few countries have exceptions to the rule of needing passports to enter them. Only Mexico and Canada do not require passports for entrance, and that is only if you enter them either by sea or land. Otherwise, you will still need a passport to enter their borders if you fly into the country.

Renewing your passport to go to other countries is nothing to fret about – today, the renewal process is simpler than ever. You don’t even need to go to a passport acceptance facility to do it – although there are 9,000 facilities that can help you with renewing your passport in the US.

If you don’t want to renew your passport at a facility in person, now you can mail in your renewal quite easily. The first step is downloading the renewal applications off the US government’s travel.gov website – you don’t even need to leave the house to get this paperwork started.

Getting your passport in the mail requires that you follow a few renewal rules. You must have a passport that is no older than 15 years old, expired is fine, and you must have been at least 16 years of age when you got the passport. A minor passport may be converted into an adult passport.

Your passport may not be mangled or damaged beyond recognition in order to be renewed, because the passport processing service must be able to verify its authenticity. If you think that your passport is too damaged, you will need to reapply to get a new passport.

If you have changed your name since you received your last passport, you unfortunately can’t apply for renewal through the mail. All name changes, be they because of marriage or any other reason, must be processed in person at a passport acceptance facility in person.

Finally, you will need to send in your old passport, along with two identical 2″x 2″ passport photos (which are obtainable at most places that advertise passport photo service) and the renewal documents. The fee for renewing your passport is somewhat less expensive.

Be prepared to wait for your new passport to arrive. The wait times are long – both for people who are applying for the first time for their passport and for those who are renewing their passports.