Originally Posted by GUWonder

Passports issued last week in the US are from the same passport blank stock as that used last year too.

That report does publicly indicate that State has not yet ordered (from GPO) the next generation passport blanks for common use.

I expect to see passport costs to be hiked up as a result of the next generation passport, whether at the same time as the change or some time after that.

Originally Posted by Valerian

For anybody that is still following this:

https://govtribe.com/award/federal-c...-saqmma17f4828

This order was supposed to be completed the end of January 2020. This has been extended to January 2021. For sure no issuance this year. Earliest will be end of 2021. Bear in mind this was supposed to be issued in 2016 and is based on technology from that period. Fast forward 5 years and about a generation or two of technology has passed and our incompetent Department of State cannot get this simple task done. For anybody still on the fence, forget any update. It likely is YEARS away at this point. Update your passport and forget about any next gen updates. Oh btw, when they do eventually roll out this misbegotten program, passport fees are probably going to go up quite a bit:

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/upl...-CBJ-Final.pdf

Go to page 21 of the document. The next gen passports books are going to be 22.5% more expensive to make! And they will certainly pass on all of this added costs to consumers. It might even be advisable to renew in advance of the darned program if the cost increase in commensurate.