TWA884

According to the FAQ in the State Department webpage linked above by Valerian:

Valerian

The pages have some modifications to the background artwork.

Valerian

Very very odd that there isn’t more information about the nextgen passport, and that there is no discussion of this in the media, nor any articles mentioning it.

Section 107

not really, it is only years late and hundreds of millions of dollars over original estimates - business as usual, nothing to see here.....

txviking

One might almost think that somewhere, someone is embarrassed about this and that's why the transition is happening with very little fanfare.

BTW, I received my very first US passport today and unsurprisingly, it's the old design. Based on the post above, I expect that will be the case for the majority of applicants for a few months still.

Valerian

Agreed. Am not surprised you got the ePassport and not the NextGen passport. They have just announced it and have contracts to produce equipment through about March of 2022. In addition, BoE&P and DoS planning and budget documents state that they were planning to complete the rollout in FY 2022 (October 2021 to September 2022). I think by next summer the NextGen passport will be the solely issued version. It will be predominantly the old version now, with a very gradual shift over a year.

txviking

I'm actually glad I got the ePassport. I don't much care for the look of the NextGen one. Also, my other passport (Norwegian) has a polycarbonate biodata page. Not only did that cause me problems back in the day (early polycarbonate pages got brittle with age and would come loose from the passport,) it also makes the passport bulkier. It may be more secure, though.

Valerian

It is more secure. When I am confident I will get one, I will renew. Despite having renewed fairly recently. These days, I will take the extra security and protection.

txviking

What worries do you have about your current one being abused, assuming you keep it in your possession?

Valerian

Data and ID theft is a major problem in general. I would be inclined to always opt to maximize security on these fronts.

Valerian

Department of State is so proud of their achievement that the announcement was done via subfolder on a website. No real demonstration of product features. No media articles or announcements. No discussion of rollout. Bizzare.

GUWonder

In what way does the above matter, and what is the point of “tooting their own horn” or not on this? To drive up unnecessary queries about why applicants didn’t get a new version? Rather than getting busy marketing to a domestic audience, perhaps the country should have all hands on deck for issuing just the common passport version in widest US circulation.

As unfortunately the State Department won’t scrap the idea of this expensive approach for those eligible for US passports now and in the future, the slower the rollout the better it is for America’s passport users in the aggregate. I apply for too many personal passports to welcome the inevitable price hike that will eventually come with the arguably less environmentally-friendly US passport version with the polycarbonate biodata page.

Valerian

passport fees probably going up $20-25. Not a dramatic increase overall. Are you recommending clients get their passport renewed now? DoS likely to get around to raising passport fees very soon if they have launched the tourist version. So that passport fee increase is coming much sooner, rather than later. My guess is by winter. Possibly by this fall.

GUWonder

The initial increase in price won’t be the only increase in price. And due to the no additional passport page thing carrying on for this new version too, for some US citizens the US passport costs are rocketing up faster than on average in that way too.

Also, given US children’s passports aren’t going to be spared a price hike, the costs for American families that travel abroad will add up even faster than on average too.

TWA884

This is the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debateforum, the place to discuss issues affecting travel safety and security.

While some natural deviation from the subject of the thread is fine, please keep the focus of the discussion on the more secure version of the US passport, not speculation about an increase in passport fees unless those are directly related to the issuance of Next Generation Passport. You are welcome to start a new thread about passport fees going up in TravelBuzz or the USA forums, where such topics have historically been discussed.

Future posts which have nothing to do with the next generation of the US passport will be summarily deleted without further notice.

Thank you for understanding,

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator