Here’s how the U.S. Department of State’s new passport renewal system works

The US Department of State has has kept its new passport renewal system secret – until now.

The agency quietly launched a new public beta test on June 12 that may allow U.S. residents to renew their passports without having to go to an office or physically mail in documents.

The department unsuccessfully tried to implement the new system in 2022 after attempting to clear an intense renewal backlog that stretched to 13 weeks. Under the new system, a limited number of U.S. residents will probably be eligible to submit license renewal applications every day at 1 p.m. The application will close once the unspecified each day limit has been reached. Once this number is established, the department plans to extend capability each day. However, the number of accepted applications will proceed to be limited over time because of efforts to watch the new system.

According to , the new system is included in President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget, which has been approved $163 million to revamp passport delivery services so the public can do it access essential online services. Funds also went toward customer-facing upgrades at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Social Security Administration.

There will probably be new requirements for passport renewal. For an upgrade, applicants should be not less than 25 years old, have a passport issued between 2009 and 2015, haven’t any plans to vary any demographics, and never travel abroad for not less than 8 weeks from the date of application for extension.

While travelers will now not need to go to an office for the process, processing times will remain roughly six to eight weeks. Expedited services that take two to 3 weeks to finish and require additional costs won’t be eligible for online applications.

It is hoped that the new system will proceed to make data processing easier in order that data isn’t any longer backed up. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, processing times have decreased dramatically and haven’t been recovered because of travel collections and agency staff reductions, but the department says it has returned to normal work.

Back in 2021, the passport processing time was 18 weeks, and in the summer of 2023 it dropped to 10-13 weeks. As of November 2023, waiting times have been reduced to between seven and ten weeks. The first sign of normality appeared in December 2023, making it the first in the pre-pandemic era since March 2020.

To make matters even easier, the Department of State has approved a 12% staffing increase from December 2022 to January 2024.