Wherever you stash your passport between trips—in your dresser drawer, under your mattress, in the freezer—go there now and check the expiration date. Go ahead. We’ll wait.
We’re just trying to save you from that moment of panic that’s increasingly common among U.S. travelers. That moment when you’re packing for a trip and you realize you’ve got fewer than six months before your passport expires. Or, worse, that moment when you’re at the airport checking in for a flight and the airline tells you you’re not allowed to board because you don’t have six months’ validity.
You see, a ten-year passport is not actually good for ten years. Depending on the country you’re traveling to, it may be good for only nine and a half. That’s because many countries won’t let in U.S. citizens unless they have six months left on their passport. Check the rules for your destination here .
Here are five more things to know about renewing your passport—or getting one for the first time—this year:
- If your passport is expiring in 2016, renew it now.
The State Department expects to be inundated this year with renewals of 10-year passports that were issued in 2006 and 2007. That’s because 2007 was a year when certain international restrictions went into effect and, as a result, millions more Americans than usual applied for passports.
- You can do the entire passport renewal process by mail in most cases.
If you’re getting a passport for the first time, though, you need to submit the application in person at a designated passport agency, post office, or other authorized location . Call the National Passport Information Center (877-487-2778) 24 hours a day to make an appointment. The fee for renewals is $110. The fee for first-timers is $135.
- Renewals this year are expected to take about six weeks.
You can get it done in three weeks, with expedited service , for an additional $60 (plus delivery costs).
- The price is the same whether you get a 28-page book or a 52-page book.
So, if you’re a frequent traveler, you might as well ask for the larger book.
- If you need to renew your passport urgently, you can get one within a few days.
You can get it done in eight days or less if you go in person to one of 28 regional passport agencies . Call to make an appointment and request expedited service. Desperate friends of mine who live in New York City and were flying the next day have found it possible to go to Manhattan’s passport office at the crack of dawn with their travel documents, stand in line, and get their passports renewed the same day. (God bless America!) If you are physically unable or too busy to go to a passport office yourself, there are passport expediting services you can hire.
Got questions? Write to Ask Wendy (see above, right). For more need-to-know travel intel, sign up for Wendy’s newsletter .
