The State Department issued a notice on February 9, 2010 proposing to increase fees for U.S. issued passports and visas in order to fully recover its costs.
These new fees are being set to enable the Department to recover its processing
costs. Here is a quick summary of the new fees.
First Time Passport Book for Adult – Increasing from $100 to $135.
Renewal Passport Book for Adult – Increasing from $75 to $110
Passport Book for Minors – Increases from $60 to $105.
Additional Passport Visa Pages – From no charge to $82.
Passport Card for Adult – From $20 to $30
Passport Card for Minors – From $10 to $15
In its notice, the State Department explained that passport card fees were less than the full costs to issue in order to make the cards more affordable for citizens living in the border states and who need to make regular land border crossings. The new fees for the passport book for minors are also less because this book is valid for only 5 years, instead of the 10 years for the adult book.
The notice stated the extra fee for adult passport books is designed to make up for the lower fee of the minors book. Further, the notice said the lower card fees, in relation to the actual cost of $77.59, reflects the goal of keeping the card low cost for the convenience of citizens living near the border.
NAPVS submitted comments on this fee proposal and supported the State Department’s goal of fully recovering its costs in issuing passports. However, NAPVS made a few suggestions to help keep costs down for frequent travelers.
First, because now for the first time there is a fee for adding extra pages to a passport, and a hefty one at $82, NAPVS requested that the State Department web site prominently inform visitors at the time of renewal or first time application that a jumbo passport book with extra pages already added can be purchased instead of the regular passport book.
Second, that some frequent travelers and pilots have the need for possessing a second passport book in order to be able to travel abroad while getting visas for an upcoming trip. Since such a passport only has a 2 year life, NAPVS suggests fees should be less than the ten-year book.
The State Department intends to implement these new fees as soon as practicable within the administrative requirements for finalizing its proposal. NAPVS did suggest that the new fees not go into affect no less than 30 days from the date these new fees become official to give travel companies and its customers sufficient time to smoothly adopt the new fee structure.
New fees are likely sometime this Spring. NAPVS and its members will have the latest information on these new fees, so check back at this web site for up to date U.S. passport fee information.