How Much Does It Cost to Renew a Passport (2026 Data)

How much does it cost to renew a passport? For an adult US passport book, the government fee is $130¹ in 2026: a $50 application fee plus an $80 security surcharge. A first-time applicant pays $165² for the same book. The whole $35 difference is a single charge, the execution fee for applications handed in in person, and a renewal by mail or online never pays it.³

That $130 has a long history and a wide reach. The adult renewal fee was $40⁴ in 2000, about 60% of an estimated 10.5 million renewals are expected to be filed online in fiscal 2027,⁵ and in the 20 states still on the $7.25 federal minimum wage the fee equals 17.9 hours of work.⁶⁷ This page prices every renewal path, from a card to a fully rushed book, follows the fee back to 2000 and sets it against other countries' renewal prices.

The renewal fee in 2026

A US passport renewal is priced line by line in the federal fee schedule. The adult application fee, listed for “Applicants age 16 or over (including renewals)”, is $50¹, and the passport book security surcharge is $80¹. Together they make the $130 an adult pays to renew a book. The surcharge is the bigger part: $80 of every $130, or 61.5%, is the security surcharge.⁷

Everything else in the schedule is either optional or does not apply to a renewal. Expedited service adds $60¹, and 1-3 day return delivery adds $22.05², available only for passport books mailed in the United States; the April 2025 edition of the renewal form still called it 1-2 day delivery.³ The $150 file-search fee is charged only when no evidence of citizenship is presented,¹ and a renewal always encloses the previous passport.³

Why a renewal costs $35 less

The execution fee is charged, in the schedule's own words, to “first-time applicants and others who must apply in person”.¹ The renewal form is explicit about the other side: “There is no execution fee to use this form.”³ The $35 equals 21% of the first-time price, and it was set to cover the cost of accepting an application in person: when it rose from $25 to $35 in 2018, one cost model put that work at over $33 per application and a separate study at more than $34.⁸

The gap has not always been $35. In 2000 it was $20: a $15 execution fee plus a first-time application fee $5 higher than the renewal fee.⁴ From the 2003 edition the two application fees were merged into one adult fee “including renewals”, so the gap has equaled the execution fee ever since: $30, then $25 from 2008 and $35 from the 2019 edition of the schedule.⁹¹⁰¹¹

How much to renew a passport card

A passport card renews for $30¹: the adult card application fee, with no security surcharge and no execution fee. A book and a card renewed together cost $160². Newly issued cards travel by first-class mail only, so the 1-3 day delivery option does not apply to them.³ Spread over 10 years of validity, a renewed card costs $3.00 a year, against $13.00 a year for a renewed book.⁷

Every product at every speed

Speed is sold separately, and it adds the same dollar amounts to a renewal as to a first application. The table prices each adult product at routine speed, with expedited service, and with expedited service plus 1-3 day return delivery.

At full speed, a renewed book costs $212.05, which is $82.05 more than at routine speed and still $35 below a rushed first-time book at $247.05.⁷ The card never takes the delivery add-on, so its fastest renewal is $90.³ The price is fixed by regulation; the route to it is the applicant's choice.

Mail, online or in person

A renewal can be filed by mail, online or, for travel within 14 days, in person at a passport agency, and the base fee is the same on every one of those paths. “The Department charges the same fee for a passport renewal application regardless of whether it is received by mail or online.”⁵ An applicant who files the first-time form in person instead pays the execution fee on top, and a renewal from abroad goes by mail only where the local embassy or consulate has been authorized to accept mailed applications.¹³ The channel changes what an applicant can add, not the base price. Online renewal cannot be expedited;¹⁴ a mailed renewal can, for passports mailed in the United States and Canada,³ and at a passport agency the $60 expedite fee is always charged, so an agency renewal costs $190⁷ with no execution fee.²

How much it costs to renew a passport online

Online, the fee is the same $130, but several side costs fall away. Online renewal removes the need to obtain physical passport photos, fill out a paper application and mail it with the other required materials.¹⁴ In a survey of online renewers, only 34%⁵ said their photo came from a post office or another professional service that charges for it; the other 66% paid nothing for their photo.

The government's own estimate prices what a mailed renewal costs on top of the fee: $11.95⁵ for a trackable Priority Mail flat-rate envelope, and a round trip of about six miles to a post office, worth $4.35⁷ at the federal mileage rate of $0.725 a mile.⁵ Add a $15.00⁵ photo for those who would have paid for one, and going online saves up to $31.30⁷ per applicant.

Online renewal has limits. It is open to applicants aged 25 or older who are renewing a 10-year passport that expires within a year or expired less than five years ago, and it cannot be combined with expedited service.¹⁴ Those are operating criteria; the regulation itself asks for a passport with one year or less of validity left, filed within 15 years of the old passport's issue date.¹³

The paperwork is lighter too: the renewal form's official burden estimate is 40 minutes³, against 85 minutes¹⁵ for the first-time form.

How much it costs to renew a passport at the post office

A post office is not where a renewal is usually paid. The renewal form is normally mailed to one of three National Passport Processing Center addresses, chosen by state and by speed.³ Routine renewals from California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Texas go to Irving, Texas; routine renewals from every other state and from Canada go to Philadelphia; and every expedited renewal goes to a separate Philadelphia box.³

What a post office sells a renewer is the photo, at $15.00¹⁶, and the postage. The average trip to a post office is estimated at about three miles each way and 10 minutes.⁵ An applicant who hands a first-time form over a post office counter pays $165² instead, because the execution fee then applies.

Which path fits which applicant

Most adults qualify for the $130 path, but a damaged passport, a name change without the right documents or a passport issued before age 16 sends the applicant back to the first-time form.³

Most applicants never meet those exceptions. The one rule that catches people out is the 15-year limit, which makes timing the next question.

How often you have to renew your passport

An adult passport is valid for 10 years¹², and a passport issued before age 16 for 5 years.¹² The renewal window is wider than the validity: by mail or online, an adult can renew until 15 years after the old passport's issue date, which for a 10-year book is 5 years after it expires.¹³

Online renewal opens later than mail. The regulation admits an online application only when the passport “has one year or less of validity remaining”, so for a 10-year book the online window opens in year 9 and closes in year 15.¹³ By mail there is no opening date, and after 15 years a senior passport authorizing officer may still allow a mail application.¹³ A rule proposed in August 2026 would drop the one-year requirement for online renewal; it is not final.⁵

Put on a calendar, a 10-year adult book can be renewed online from year 9 to year 15 and by mail at any point up to year 15. A child's 5-year passport has no renewal window at all, because the renewal form requires that the applicant was at least 16 when the last passport was issued.³ Every new passport for a child is a first-time application.

How much to renew an expired passport

Expiry on its own adds nothing to the price. A 10-year adult passport that expired up to 5 years ago is still inside the 15-year window, so it renews for the same $130 by mail, or online when the applicant meets the online criteria.¹³ Past 15 years from issue, the applicant files the first-time form and pays $165¹, unless a senior officer allows a mail application.¹³

Some replacements cost nothing. A passport book or card replaced for a name change or a data error within one year of issuance carries no fee, and neither does replacing a book issued with limited validity within its first year.¹ A lost or stolen passport is different: it is reported on a DS-64 and replaced on the first-time form, at $165¹⁷ for an adult book.

How long passports last elsewhere

Ten years is common but not universal. Of the 23 other countries compared below, 20 issue a 10-year adult passport, at least for some ages, while Sweden and Finland issue 5-year passports and Belgium 7-year ones.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰ Several countries tie the length to age: Hungary's 10-year passport is for ages 18 to 65, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia give 10 years from age 21.²¹²²²³

Where validity is shorter, renewals come around more often: a Swedish or Finnish adult renews twice in the time an American renews once.¹⁸¹⁹ Waiting costs a US renewer nothing until year 15. Speed, by contrast, costs money from the first day.

Paying for speed

Expedited service costs $60¹ on top of the renewal fee and buys a shorter processing time, not a different passport. The current commitment is 4 to 6 weeks for routine service and 2 to 3 weeks for expedited service, and renewing online does not reduce processing times.¹⁴

Measured times have swung much further than the published ones. From May to July of fiscal 2019, routine applications took an average of 5.2 weeks⁴¹ and expedited ones 2.4 weeks; in the same months of fiscal 2023, routine applications took 10.5 weeks⁴¹ and expedited ones 6.1 weeks. Routine processing took about 2 times as long and expedited processing 2.5 times as long as four years earlier.⁷

Published targets followed the backlog and the recovery. Routine service was advertised at 6 to 8 weeks before the pandemic, 10 to 13 weeks in March 2023 and 6 to 8 weeks again by December 2023; since October 2024 it has been 4 to 6 weeks.¹⁴ To meet those targets, staffing for adjudicating applications rose by over 32%¹⁴ from January 2022.

How much an expedited passport costs

For a renewal, expedited service brings an adult book to $190⁷; for a first-time adult book, to $225.⁷ On a renewal it cannot be requested online;¹⁴ it is available on a mailed form for passports mailed in the United States and Canada,³ and it is charged on every renewal made in person at a passport agency for travel within 14 days.² A card renewed on its own costs $90 expedited.⁷

How much it costs to expedite a passport renewal

The fastest government option adds 1-3 day return delivery, $22.05², for a total of $212.05: the $50 application fee, the $80 surcharge, the $60 expedite fee and the delivery fee.⁷ That is 1.63 times the routine price. Delivery makes up 10.4% of the rushed total, and it is sold for books only.³

Private expediting companies sell another layer on top of every government fee. Their prices are commercial and vary by company and by turnaround.

At the top end, a $940 private 1-day package plus the $190 government fee for an expedited renewal comes to $1,130, more than 8 times the routine renewal.⁴⁴⁷

The costs around the fee

The government fee is only part of a mailed renewal. A photo goes with every paper application, and its price depends on where it is taken: $7.64⁴⁵ at the cheapest retailer compared and $17.99⁴⁶ at the most expensive, a spread of $10.35.⁷

Membership discounts can take the photo cost to zero. At one regional motor club, a non-member pays $15.00⁴⁹ for a set, a basic member $8.45, and members of the two higher tiers pay nothing, one free set a year on the middle tier.⁴⁹ Clubs set their own prices, so this is an example, not a national rate.

Put together, a routine renewal by mail with a $15.00 photo and an $11.95 trackable envelope costs $156.95⁷, still $8.05 less than the first-time fee alone.⁷ Online, the same renewal can cost just the $130 fee, since the online form needs no postage and most online renewers paid nothing for their photo.⁵ Today's $130 is the latest step in a quarter century of rule changes.

How the renewal fee reached $130

In April 2000 an adult renewal cost $40⁴, under a schedule that still listed it as its own line, “Subsequent application (renewal)”. By 2026 the fee is $130, 3.25 times as much, a 225% rise.⁷ The steps were uneven: $55 from August 2002, $67 from March 2005, $75 from February 2008, $110 from July 2010 and $130 from December 2021.^950515253

The single biggest step came with the July 2010 rule, which raised the renewal fee by $35, from $75 to $110, or 46.7%.⁵² The second-biggest, in December 2021, added $20, all of it surcharge.⁵³ The dotted extension of the line is a straight-line trend fitted to 2000-2026: our calculation, not a forecast. Fees change by rule-making, not by formula, and they can stay flat for years at a time: the renewal fee did not move from the 2011 to the 2021 edition, even though the application fee and the surcharge traded places in 2015.⁵⁹

Where each dollar went, year by year

Behind the flat stretches, the parts of the fee moved a lot. The application fee paid on a renewal went from $40 to $55, then $70 and back down to $50; the security surcharge did not exist in 2000, started at $12 in 2005 and reached $80 in 2022, 6.67 times its first level.⁷ Today the surcharge is the larger part of every renewal.

After inflation

Measured in 2025 dollars, the renewal fee peaked at $157.44⁷ in 2011, right after the 2010 increase, and has fallen since, apart from a jump in 2022, to $130.00 in 2025.⁶⁰ The 2000 fee of $40 equals $74.78 in 2025 dollars, so in real terms a renewal costs 1.74 times what it did in 2000, not 3.25 times.⁷ The dotted trend on the chart is our calculation, not a forecast.

The first-time fee follows the same path at a higher level: $60 in 2000 is $112.18 in 2025 dollars, against $165 today.⁷ In real terms, a renewal now costs less than in any year from 2011 to 2024.⁷

Seven rule changes

Each change came through a published rule, and two of them did not touch the renewal price at all.⁵⁹⁸ In 2015 the application fee fell by $20 while the surcharge rose by $20, and in 2018 only the execution fee rose, from $25 to $35, which renewers do not pay.

The add-ons moved less often. Expedited service cost $35⁴ in 2000, when it was described as “guaranteed 3-day service”, and has cost $60 since August 2002.⁹ An adult passport card renewal was first listed at $20 in the 2008 edition and has cost $30 since the 2011 edition.¹⁰⁵⁵

What the surcharge increases paid for

Both recent surcharge increases came with an itemized cost case. In 2008 each new passport book cost $14.80⁵¹, nearly triple its previous cost, and Priority Mail delivery cost $4.60 instead of the 60-cent first-class rate, a total of $19.40 per book that the surcharge was rounded up to $20 to cover.⁵¹

The 2021 increase, from $60 to $80, was broken down the same way: about $8.00 for adjudicator compensation, $7.00 for book material and $3.45 for anti-counterfeiting printing technology.⁵³ The remaining $1.55 covers all other net cost changes.⁷

Each rule also projected what it would raise. The 2021 surcharge increase was expected to bring in $318,000,000⁵³ a year from about 15.9 million applications, and the 2018 execution-fee increase $115,000,000⁸, none of it from renewals.

The move online

Online renewal went from a test to nearly half of all renewals in about three years. Pilot programs and beta testing date back to at least 2022, and the system was made fully available to the public in September 2024.⁶¹ A pilot that concluded in March 2023 was followed by a plan for an option that “would initially enable 5 million Americans to renew their passports online”.⁶²

By August 2025, nearly half of all US passport renewals were being filed online.⁶³ In a user survey, 94% of online renewers gave positive feedback and 86% said the experience increased their trust in government services.⁶³ The projected online share for fiscal 2027 is approximately 60%.⁵

How many renew, and how

For fiscal 2027, the government projects 10,509,576⁵ renewal applications, 6,279,511⁵ of them online, including up to 220,000 applicants abroad if the proposal is adopted. That leaves about 4,230,065⁷ paper renewals by mail. In fiscal 2025, 220,802 renewal applications came in through two overseas programs, one for digitizing passport applications abroad and one for repatriation.⁵

What going online saves

Because the fee is the same, the savings sit in the side costs, and they add up. The government estimates them at $148,685,935⁵ a year from fiscal 2027: $72.4 million in avoided postage, $30.9 million in photos and $26.4 million in travel to a post office, plus $19.0 million that depends on the proposed overseas expansion, in lost wages avoided and embassy staff time.⁵⁷ Postage alone is 48.7% of the total.⁷

Per applicant in the US, the saving runs from $16.30⁷ for someone whose photo would have been free to $31.30 for someone who would have paid $15.00 for it. The photo line rests on the 34% of online renewers who said they had paid for a photo, 2,060,234 people.⁵ The estimate also carries the savings forward for ten years at two discount rates.

Discounted at 3%, the tenth year's savings are still worth $113,035,666⁵ today; at 7%, $77,377,808. These are estimates that assume the same volumes every year, not measured savings.

Who is still left out

Online renewal is not available for children's passports, for first-time applicants or, for now, for Americans living outside the United States.⁶³ The August 2026 proposal would open it to qualified applicants abroad in phases and remove the one-year-remaining requirement, and it set out two other expansions that it did not adopt.⁵

Children sit outside that whole system, and their passports follow different rules.

How much it costs to renew a child passport

A child's passport cannot be renewed. The renewal form requires that the applicant was at least 16 when the most recent passport was issued, so every new passport for a child is a first-time application, made in person.³

In 2026 that costs $135² for a child's book: a $20 application fee, the same $80 surcharge adults pay and the $35 execution fee.¹ A child's card costs $50 and a book and card together $150, and each is valid for 5 years, not 10.²¹² Per year of validity, a child's book costs $27.00, more than twice the $13.00 of an adult renewal.⁷

It was not always so. In 2000 the schedule still priced a renewal for under-16s, at $25 plus a $15 execution fee charged to “first-time applicants and renewals under age 16”, $40 in all.⁴ A child's book now costs $135, 3.375 times its 2000 level, a faster rise than the adult renewal's 3.25 times.⁷

The chart's dotted trend is our calculation, not a forecast. Split into its parts, the child's fee shows where each increase came from: the execution fee doubled from $15 to $30 in 2002, the security surcharge arrived in 2005 and grew from $12 to $80, and the child's application fee itself has been $20 since the 2016 edition, lower than in 2003.^4954505657

The 2015 rule shows how the pieces trade off: the child's application fee fell from $40 to $20 while the surcharge rose from $40 to $60, leaving the total at $105.⁵⁹ For a family, the practical point is that the surcharge, not the application fee, now sets the price: $80 of a child's $135 is surcharge, the same $80 an adult pays.¹

Other countries price children's passports very differently, and many charge children far less than adults.²⁷²⁹

In Denmark a child's passport costs $23.01 against $137.12 for an adult, a gap of $114.11, and in the Czech Republic it costs $4.71.²⁷²⁹ The US charges children $135, close to the adult first-time fee, because the $80 surcharge and the $35 execution fee apply at every age.¹

The renewal wave

Renewals follow issuance with a 10-year lag, because that is how long an adult passport lasts.¹² Issuance jumped by 51.5% in fiscal 2007, to 18,382,798⁶⁵ passports, and that cohort reached the end of its validity from 2017.⁷ In February 2008, more than 24 million passports in circulation were due to expire within 5 years.⁶⁶

Issuance fell to 11,711,945 in fiscal 2020, the pandemic year, and was back to 21,995,760 by fiscal 2022.¹⁴ Most adult books among the record 27,348,416¹⁴ passports issued in fiscal 2025 reach the end of their 10-year validity around 2035.⁷ The line's dotted continuation is our calculation, not a forecast, and it is fitted to years that include the 2020 pandemic low.

The stock of valid passports has grown even faster. It stood at over 74,000,000⁶⁷ in April 2007 and at 183,170,240⁶⁸ at the close of fiscal 2025, 2.5 times as many, and every one of them will one day need a renewal or a replacement.⁷

The share of Americans holding a passport rose from 5% in 1990 to 30% in 2008 and 48% in 2024.⁶²¹⁴ Nearly half of all citizens now hold a document that has to be renewed every 10 years.

One fee, fifty-one very different paychecks.

What $130 means from state to state

The renewal fee is the same in every state, but the work it takes to earn it is not. At the $7.25 federal minimum wage, which still applies in 20⁶ states, the $130 fee takes 17.9 hours⁷ of work. In the District of Columbia, at $18.40 an hour, it takes 7.1 hours; the federal-minimum figure is 2.5 times as many hours.⁷

Each state is shown at one rate: its standard statewide rate, the rate for the rest of the state where a metro area has its own tier, and the larger-employer rate where the rate depends on employer size.⁶ Every state's routine renewal is also sent to one of two processing addresses, which is the other way the fee's path differs by state.³

How much a passport renewal costs in California

The fee is $130, as everywhere. At California's $16.90 minimum wage it takes 7.7 hours of work, and a routine renewal from California is mailed to the processing center in Irving, Texas.⁶³

How much to renew a passport in Florida

Also $130. At Florida's $14.00 minimum wage the fee takes 9.3 hours of work, and routine renewals from Florida go to Irving, Texas as well.⁶³

How much to renew a passport in NY

New York's minimum wage is $16.00 in most of the state, where the $130 fee takes 8.1 hours of work, and $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, where it takes 7.6 hours.⁶⁷ The state's routine renewals are mailed to Irving, Texas too.³ Neighboring Connecticut, at $16.94, needs 7.7 hours, and Washington, at $17.13, needs 7.6.⁶ The full list follows, most hours first.

From state paychecks, the comparison moves to other countries' price lists.

The passport renewal process by country

Each country sets its own renewal rules. The comparison below uses each country's standard adult fee, converted to dollars at one exchange-rate reading.⁶⁴ In the UK and New Zealand the same adult fee explicitly applies to a renewal, and Mexico lists adult renewal under its single price table; the US is the case where a renewal is cheaper, because only the in-person execution fee is dropped.^6970711

At $130, a US renewal costs less than the standard adult passport in Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and the UK, and more than in the other 8 countries compared.⁷ Australia's fee converts to $300.08⁷, 2.3 times the US renewal, while India's is the lowest, $26.08, which is $103.92 less.⁷²⁷

Cost per year of validity

Dividing each fee by the years a passport lasts gives the price of staying documented. A US book renewal costs $13.00⁷ a year and a card renewal $3.00. Among 20 other countries with published fees and validity, only Saudi Arabia ($16.00), Portugal ($14.90), Denmark ($13.71) and Italy ($13.32) charge more per year than a US book renewal; the other 16 charge less.⁷

Short validity pushes a cheap fee up this ranking: Portugal's $74.52 passport lasts 5 years, which is why it costs $14.90 a year.⁸¹⁷

How much it costs to renew a British passport

In the UK the adult online fee has been GBP 102.00⁸², about $136.39⁷, since April 2026, and a postal application costs GBP 115.50.⁸² The online fee has risen from GBP 75.50 in 2018, a 35.1% increase over eight years.⁸³⁷

The chart's dotted extension is our calculation, not a forecast. A British adult renewing by post in 2026 pays GBP 13.50 more than one renewing online.⁷

How much it costs to renew a Mexican passport

Mexico prices every passport by validity, and adult renewal uses the same table: the applicant books an appointment at a passport office in Mexico or at a consulate and brings the original passport.⁷¹ In Mexico a 10-year passport costs MXN 4,280⁷¹, about $248.18; at a consulate abroad the same passport is priced at USD 209⁷¹.

Applicants aged 60 or older, people with disabilities and agricultural workers covered by the arrangement with Canada pay half, MXN 2,140⁷¹ or USD 104.50 for 10 years, although the 10-year discount does not apply to the agricultural workers. A Mexican adult renewing at a consulate in the US pays $39.18 less for a 10-year passport than the peso price converts to.⁷

Canada, Australia and renewing abroad

Canada raised its fee on March 31, 2026, for the first time since 2013: a 10-year adult passport applied for in Canada went from CAD 160.00 to CAD 163.50, and from outside Canada it now costs CAD 266.25, CAD 102.75 more.⁷⁴

Australia's standard adult fee has climbed in every year shown, from AUD 301 in 2021 to AUD 422 in 2026, 40.2% in five years.⁸⁷⁷³

Our trend line on that chart is a calculation, not a forecast. Renewing from abroad often costs more than at home: Germany charges $80.25 at home and $121.52 at a consulate, a premium of $41.27, while Spain's two prices differ by $0.23.^77899091647

Several governments also sell faster service at a steep premium. Belgium's very urgent same-day passport costs $401.15⁷ against $74.52 for the standard one, more than five times as much, and in Thailand a same-day passport costs $104.92 against $44.96.²⁰³⁵

What renewal costs mean for travelers

For an adult, the cheapest path is simple: renew within 15 years of the old passport's issue date and do not rush.¹³ That keeps the fee at $130 instead of $165. Renewing online, which opens in the last year of validity for applicants aged 25 or older, also removes the $11.95 postage and, for most online renewers, the photo cost.⁵

Speed is the expensive choice. Expedited service adds $60 and 1-3 day delivery another $22.05, and a private 1-day package on top of an expedited renewal brings the total to $1,130.¹⁴⁴⁷ Waiting too long is expensive in a different way, because it turns a $130 renewal into a $165 first-time application.¹³

Families pay the most per year of validity. Children cannot renew, their passports last 5 years, and each new one costs $135, or $27.00 a year.¹⁷ And because the renewal form needs a passport issued at 16 or older, a teenager whose last passport was issued at 15 applies as a first-time adult too.³

The burden also differs by paycheck. The same $130 is 17.9 hours of work at the federal minimum wage and 7.1 hours in the District of Columbia, while the fee itself is identical in every state; what differs is the processing address a mailed renewal goes to.⁷³

Conclusions

1. In real terms, renewing now costs less than at any point from 2011 to 2024. The $130 fee equals $130.00 in 2025 dollars, $27.44 below the 2011 peak of $157.44; in nominal terms it is 3.25 times the 2000 fee of $40, but in real terms only 1.74 times.⁷
2. The whole renewal discount is one $35 fee, so the deadline matters more than the form. Inside 15 years of issue an adult pays $130 by mail or online; after that the same passport costs $165, as does replacing a lost or damaged adult book at any point in its validity.¹³¹⁷ A child's replacement is a $135 first-time application.¹
3. Going online changes the side costs, not the fee. No $11.95 postage, no $4.35 trip and, for 66% of online renewers, no photo cost: up to $31.30 per applicant, while anyone who needs expedited service still mails the form or visits a passport agency and pays at least $190.⁵¹⁴¹⁷
4. Renewal demand echoes issuance ten years earlier. The FY2007 surge of 18,382,798 passports, up 51.5%, came due from 2017, and the record 27,348,416 issued in FY2025 include most of the adult books that come due around 2035, while the projected online share of renewals is already 60% for FY2027.⁶⁵¹⁴⁵
5. The US renewal is mid-priced abroad but heavy for low earners at home. At $13.00 per year of validity it costs more than in 16 of the 20 other countries compared on that basis, and it takes 17.9 hours of work in the 20 states on the $7.25 minimum wage, against 7.1 hours in DC.⁷