My passport expired awhile back, and I’ve been meaning to get it renewed. Turns out if you meet certain requirements, you can renew your passport over the mail.
- At least 16 years old when you got your last passport issued – Turns out I was 16 and change
- Within 15 years since you got your last passport issued – It’s only been a little over 10 years. I did find it weird that unlike driver’s license which expire on your birthday, passport’s actually expire from when they’re issued.
- a couple other requirements which I met
I needed to get some passport photos. Xyon had mentioned that he got his from Kinkos. I started searching and calling the Kinkos around me. The one in Factoria apparently doesn’t do passport photos, but the one in downtown Bellevue did. It also turns out that location is open 24 hours. Another interesting fact is that FedEx is apparently dropping the Kinkos brand. Both the website and the automated phone system say “Formerly FedEx Kinkos now known as FedEx Office”. The passport photos were a bit more expensive than I had anticipated ($13 for 2), but saves me the hassle from taking my own and having to get them to the correct size.
Since I got up at 11am on Saturday (it’s surprising how much more time there is on a weekend when you wake up early), I finished my shopping and stuff around noon. Since I was in the neighborhood, I wanted to see if Chad was up for lunch. Turns out I don’t have Chad’s cell number. Haha, oh well, missed opportunity. That issue has since be remedied.
The cost for renewal was $75 and they only accepted checks and money orders. Had to bust out my checkbook. It’s been so long since I wrote a check.
It sucks that I have to send in my expired passport for this renewal. It has so many cool stamps! I contemplated on stating I lost it or that the passport is damaged, but I think it required me to fill out another form or having to go apply in person.
I guess I haven’t really changed that much in 10 years, though I definitely looked a lot more nerdier back then ;p
I believe the old passport gets sent back to you, just with some punched holes in it to show it is expired. At least, my husband’s old passport was sent back when he re-applied a few years ago. One neat thing about the way it is set up is that you can register on their website to get emails as your passport moves through the process. I just got the email today that they finished processing my application and had mailed my new passport back to me. It was a bit quicker than the 4-6 weeks advertised.
Sweet! That’d be great if I get my old passport back. 🙂