No More Visa Page Inserts for U.S. Passports in 2016
Jennifer Billock December 04, 2015
As of January 1, frequent travelers will no longer be able to obtain extra passport pages.
Frequent travelers, take note—the U.S. Department of State is discontinuing its service allowing citizens to mail in their passports so additional pages can be added. Effective January 1, 2016, anyone looking to get extra pages will have to apply for a completely new passport. According to the Department of State, the new regulation is designed to enhance passport security and follow international standards for passports.
Luckily, travelers can get new pages added up until the end of the year, so send it in now if possible in order to avoid the price hike of a completely new passport.
The Department of State has tried to mitigate the effects, and beginning in October 2014, those applying for U.S. passports from outside the States were automatically issued larger, 52-page books at no extra charge. Applicants within the States have the option of a 28-page or a 52-page passport, also at no additional cost.
Some places, such as South Africa and Kenya, require a certain amount of consecutive blank passport pages in order to allow someone into the country, and some visas take up half pages or whole pages.
This hasn’t been a complete surprise to U.S. passport holders worldwide, though. The original proposal to remove the extra passport pages option came back in March, and reminders have been issued throughout the year to either order new blank pages right away or prepare to apply for a completely new book.
[Photo: Getty]
As soon as they started charging to add pages it made more since to just renew and get a new book.
BTW, the USA visa takes a full page of foreigners passports...
I'd just about filled my last (smaller) passport when it came up for renewal, and I saw the announcement, so I made a point of getting the big book this time around. Better to have the pages and not need them than need them and not have them.