If you need to apply for a passport, you should act sooner than later. The passport execution fee is going up to $35 as of April 2, 2018, thanks to a new rule out of the Department of State. The rule was originally proposed last year and went through a 60-day period of public comment. That period has closed and the final rule is now approved and will go into effect in April.
The passport execution fee refers to the fee that you pay to get your passport application paperwork reviewed and signed by a passport acceptance agent for New, Lost, and Child passport applications. The increase to $35 marks a $10 increase to help cover the costs of these in-person services. If you apply for a new passport, a child’s passport, or a replacement for a lost or stolen passport, you need to do part of that process in person, so the new fee will affect you. But if you simply need to apply for a renewed adult passport, the fee increase won’t affect you.
According to the State Department, this fee increase is meant to help the department cover its costs only, not turn a profit on passport applications. The right to travel internationally is meant to be available to all citizens in good standing, so the State Department tries to keep the necessary costs of processing passport applications as low as possible.
Altogether, this slight fee increase brings the total cost of a new passport book to $145, or $175 if you get the passport book / card combo. The good news is that, while these prices might seem steep, they’re still substantially lower than the fees that people pay in other countries.
Australians, for example, saw their own fee increases this year that have taken the cost of a new adult passport up to $282 AUD for a ten-year passport. That’s the equivalent of $223.74 in US dollars. That’s the most expensive passport in the world.
Australia’s price hike caused them to steal that title from Turkey, which charges its citizens 764 Turkish Lira for an adult passport, or the equivalent of $203.03 USD. Third on the list of expensive passports is Switzerland, with an adult passport priced at 145 Swiss Francs or $155.61 USD.
You can learn all about the new passport execution fee rule at the State Department website. All of the details about how the rule was written and reviewed can be found here, as well as information about why the State Department decided to pass this rule.
If you need any help getting your first passport, a renewed passport, or a replacement passport, we are always available to help. We can help you get an expedited passport in as little as one business day. To learn more about the process and how our team can help, contact Swift today!
