How to Renew Your US Passport Online (DS-82)

You can renew your U.S. passport online through the State Department’s MyTravelGov portal if you meet a specific set of eligibility rules, have a compliant digital photo, and are not traveling internationally within the next six weeks. The process replaces the paper DS-82 form and mail-in submission: you upload a photo, enter your current passport details, pay by card, and wait for the new book to arrive by USPS. Routine processing runs four to six weeks, and the standard fee is $130 for a passport book.

Who Can Use the Online Portal

Online renewal is limited. You have to meet every one of these conditions:

You are 25 or older.
You are renewing the same type of passport you already hold. A book renews as a book; a card as a card; both together as both. You cannot add a document type you don’t already have.
Your passport is expiring within one year, or it expired less than five years ago.
You have the passport in your physical possession, it is undamaged, and you have not reported it lost or stolen.
You are not changing your name, date of birth, or sex marker. There is no online exception for a marriage-related name change.
You are physically in a U.S. state or territory when you submit.
You are not traveling internationally for at least six weeks from the date you submit.

The six-week travel buffer is the requirement people most often overlook. If your trip is sooner than that, the online portal is off the table regardless of how well you meet every other criterion.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Gather everything before you log in. The portal has session timeouts, and hunting for a document mid-application can cost you your progress.

Your current passport. You need the passport number and the exact issuance date, both printed on the data page.
Your Social Security number. Federal law requires it on every passport application, and leaving it off triggers a $500 IRS penalty unless you can show reasonable cause.²
A digital photo that meets federal biometric standards (see below).
A credit or debit card. The online system does not accept checks, money orders, or bank transfers.³

Digital Photo Rules

The photo is where online applications most commonly stall. The portal runs an automated quality check the moment you upload, and it rejects images that miss the mark.

Your file must be a JPG, PNG, HEIC, or HEIF between 54 kilobytes and 10 megabytes. Shoot against a plain white wall. Center your head and shoulders, face the camera directly, and leave some extra space around your face so the portal’s built-in cropping tool has room to work.⁴

Remove all eyeglasses. Prescription glasses, sunglasses, and tinted lenses are all out. The only exception is a signed doctor’s note explaining a medical reason you cannot remove them.⁵

The State Department explicitly prohibits photos created or edited with artificial intelligence or other digital tools. Filters, beauty modes, and AI-enhanced portraits get rejected.⁴ A smartphone photo taken by a friend in good natural light against a white wall often works better than a retouched studio image.

Walking Through the Application

Create a MyTravelGov account at the State Department’s official website. You verify through a secure email link, then navigate to the passport renewal section. The system is available around the clock.

The first screen prompts you to upload your photo. Once the automated check approves it, you fill in your current passport number, issuance date, Social Security number, and mailing address. Check everything on the summary screen before moving to payment, because the portal will not let you go back and edit after submission.

Submitting takes you to the Treasury Department’s Pay.gov gateway for the encrypted transaction. Once payment clears, a confirmation screen appears and your application status changes to “Submitted” in your dashboard. Automated email notifications follow as the application moves through intake, review, printing, and dispatch.¹

Fees

Current fees as of February 2026:

Passport book renewal: $130
Passport card renewal: $30
Passport book and card together: $160
Expedited processing (optional): $60 added to the base fee
1–3 day delivery (optional): $22.05 for faster shipping of the finished passport to your door

The delivery upgrade only covers shipping from the printing facility to you, and only applies to passport books mailed to U.S. addresses.³

How Long It Takes

Routine processing currently runs four to six weeks. That window covers the time your application spends at a passport agency or center. It does not include mail transit. The State Department notes it can take up to two weeks for a mailed application to arrive at an agency and another two weeks for a finished passport to reach you. Online submissions skip that first leg since there’s nothing to mail in, which can shave time off the total wait.⁶

Adding the $60 expedited fee cuts processing to two to three weeks. Stacking the $22.05 delivery upgrade on top gets the finished book to you as fast as the system allows. For a trip eight or nine weeks out, the combined upgrade is cheap insurance.³

What Happens to Your Old Passport

Do not mail your old passport anywhere. Keep it. The system cancels it electronically the moment you submit your online application, which means it is no longer valid for international travel from that point forward.¹ Your old passport is dead the instant you click submit, not when the new one arrives. Do not submit if you have any travel in the pipeline that falls inside the processing window.

If your old passport contains valid visas from other countries, hold onto it. Many countries honor a valid visa in a canceled passport as long as you carry both books when you cross the border.

Tracking and Address Changes

Your MyTravelGov dashboard shows the application status as it progresses through review stages. The new passport book ships via USPS to the address you provided, and tracking information appears in the portal once the document leaves the printing facility.

If you move while your application is in process, call the State Department at 1-877-487-2778 (or 1-888-874-7793 for TDD/TTY) to update your mailing address before the passport ships.⁷

When You Can’t Renew Online

Several common situations push you out of the online system:

Name changes from marriage, divorce, or court order. These require Form DS-82 by mail or an in-person visit; the portal has no mechanism for updating your name.
Sex marker changes. The online system does not allow them. As of late 2025, the State Department issues passports only with “M” or “F” markers matching the applicant’s biological sex at birth.⁸
Adding a document type. If you hold only a book and want a card (or the reverse), you must renew by mail.¹
Lost, stolen, or damaged passports. These require Form DS-11, a new application submitted in person at an acceptance facility.
Child passports. Five-year passports issued to minors are not eligible for online renewal.

If you have international travel within the next 14 calendar days, or need a foreign visa within 28 days, you can book an appointment at a passport agency or center through the State Department’s Online Passport Appointment System. These agencies issue passports much faster than the standard pipeline.⁹

1
U.S. Department of State. Renew Your Passport Online
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6039E – Information Concerning Resident Status
3
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Passport Fees
4
U.S. Department of State. Uploading a Digital Photo
5
U.S. Department of State. U.S. Passport Photos
6
U.S. Department of State. Processing Times for U.S. Passports
7
U.S. Department of State. Frequently Asked Questions About Passport Services
8
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Sex Marker in Passports
9
U.S. Department of State. Make an Appointment at a Passport Agency or Center