On April 2, 2018 there will be an additional cost for getting a USA passport. Just a small increase of $10. A ten-year passport currently costs $135, or less than $14 a year for you to have the option to see the world.
This is increasing to $145, so $14.50 per year to see all that the world has to offer, while child passports (ages 16 and younger) will cost $115, up from $105.
Other than the price increase, you shouldn’t wait to apply beyond April, because the time it takes to process a passport will be longer due to increased demand.
One more important note: for frequent travelers, when you apply for your passport, make sure you ask for the extended number of pages—about 50 instead of the usual 24. You can always order a bigger, 52-page passport (as opposed to the standard 28-page one) free of charge when you’re applying for the first time or renewing an expired one.
Why? Because once you fill up that passport with country entry and departure stamps, the U.S. State Department will no longer add pages to your passport.
You’ll be forced to get a new one.
Typically, renewing a passport takes four-to-six weeks, though the State Department says that timeframe can vary “depending on the time of year, and occasional unforeseen circumstances such as natural disasters.” Fear not — there are ways to get a passport within a day or two, if you’re in a pinch.
