Just as WalletPop warned you in March, The price of a United States passport will zoom from $75 to $110, plus a $25 application fee, on Tuesday, July 13. So if you have been putting off getting one, submit your application right away to save money.
Against the advice of people who make their money from tourism across the country, the State Department is jacking up the rate. First-time applicants will pay $110 plus a $25 execution fee, bringing the cost to $135 (up from $100). Renewals will cost $110 (up from $75), and minors under the age of 16 will now pay $105 (up from $85).
Passport cards, which are only good for travel by land or sea, will be $30 plus the $25 "acceptance fee," or $55 (up from $45), renewals of passport cards will be $30 (up from $20), and minors will pay $40 for their passport cards (up from $35).
The rate hike far outstrips the rate of inflation, but the government insists the increases are necessary to accommodate the new RFID chips that are now inserted into every passport as a way of authenticating and tracking them at our borders.
Get your application in by finding the nearest passport acceptance facility using this link http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/.
I said it when the cost increases were first threatened, and I still believe it strongly now: The right to travel is a precious one that many national governments deny its citizens by law. Americans have that right, but because of where our nation is positioned on the globe, largely separated from the rest of the planet's population centers by seas, the ability to go abroad is already so expensive that millions of Americans are unable to do so. Hiking passport fees will just elevate the obstacle between the common man and his God-given right to free movement.
Against the advice of people who make their money from tourism across the country, the State Department is jacking up the rate. First-time applicants will pay $110 plus a $25 execution fee, bringing the cost to $135 (up from $100). Renewals will cost $110 (up from $75), and minors under the age of 16 will now pay $105 (up from $85).
Passport cards, which are only good for travel by land or sea, will be $30 plus the $25 "acceptance fee," or $55 (up from $45), renewals of passport cards will be $30 (up from $20), and minors will pay $40 for their passport cards (up from $35).
The rate hike far outstrips the rate of inflation, but the government insists the increases are necessary to accommodate the new RFID chips that are now inserted into every passport as a way of authenticating and tracking them at our borders.
Get your application in by finding the nearest passport acceptance facility using this link http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/.
I said it when the cost increases were first threatened, and I still believe it strongly now: The right to travel is a precious one that many national governments deny its citizens by law. Americans have that right, but because of where our nation is positioned on the globe, largely separated from the rest of the planet's population centers by seas, the ability to go abroad is already so expensive that millions of Americans are unable to do so. Hiking passport fees will just elevate the obstacle between the common man and his God-given right to free movement.