Section 107

And here is another reason these fees are wrong: DHS states that when renewing an LPR card one must pay upfront both the $455 LPR fee and the $85 biometrics fee. If you do not pay the biometrics fee the application will not be accepted nor further processed. And then they send most applicants the following love note: "Hey, thanks for sending in your application - we got it. Lucky you! We already have your biometrics on file so we are not going to make you do it again. But guess what? We are NOT going to refund the fee! We will let you know when your application is approved. Thanks for playing....!"

I would not be surprised if USCIS is not the only DHS unit that does this on a regular basis - on top of the fact that probably for a significant number of USCIS "customers" the extra $85 is very meaningful.....

GUWonder

The “security” cost aspect at State to try to justify these increased prices — under the “user fee” mentality — is rooted in averages. DHS probably does it much the same way.

RTTP

I just renewed my passport at a consulate (locator number 71 showed up in the State Dept. system), and I seem to have gotten a strange "hybrid" passport back.

It's the NGP's cover, but the ePassport's biographical & visa pages. Hoping that this doesn't cause headaches at borders that are expecting one of the two document designs.

GUWonder

Doesn’t your new passport number start with a number?

One of my own-2022-issued US passports was also a locator number 71 application and it is very much like its pre-“next generation passport” equivalent with the 52 page version and is just numbers for the passport number. I have not yet had any problem with it at any border crossings, and I wouldn’t expect it to be the source of any problem for me for at least the next few years. But I wouldn’t say it’s a “next generation passport”, because it isn’t.

RTTP

Yeah, it's a fully numerical number. The part that makes it a bit unusual is that it has the inner covers from the NGP rather than the older design.

Definitely not an NGP indeed.

Magna

Currently, the photo in U.S. ePassport is color, but it will be black & white in the new upcoming Next Generation passport. I would think a color photo is more detailed and accurate than a black & white photo. Anybody know why they decided to go with a black & white photo? Currently, the Passport Card has a black & white photo.

txviking

I believe this is a technological limitation of the poloycarbonate printing technology. My Norwegian passport (which uses a polycarbonate biodata page, just like the next gen US passport) also has a black-and-white photo and black text, although the field names are preprinted in red.

Ari

That's a misconception; it isn't for human facial recognition purposes.

cafeconleche

Well as you can see with the older generation passport, the color photo is abysmal, so there's no advantage there at all. If I remember correctly, you can see facial features better in black and white, i.e. the dimensions of every detail.

bjarki

The digital photo on the chip is in colour and that is what is used by facial recognition technology on borders. The photo on the bio page is only in B/W because a laser engraving technology is used to do it which does not allow for colour (the image is essentially made by controlled burning of the plastic).

GUWonder

Even when the passport chips are unreadable, the passport still is considered by the USG to remain valid.

4-color laser engraving technology exists for passports and other polycarbonate photo ID docs to have color photos visible with the unaided eye, but how much more money do I want to pay for more "security"? Zero. Even the December 2021 increase in US passport fees is unwelcome by me. And the next generation US passport costs are already increasing in such a way that it's a matter of when and for how much more the next "user fee" increase hits because of this transition in passport book style.

Section 107

any estimates or guesses as to what the next increase might be? Don't need to renew mine until next year but if the cost will go up significantly then perhaps I will renew sooner....it might mean 4 or 5 gallons of gas....

Valerian

The pace of rollout of the nextgen passport is embarrassingly slow. And people have reported quality control issues with the back covering having issues with the page peeling off. After more than 6 years of development you would expect a smoother rollout and a better product. On top of all of this, DoS raised the cost of getting a passport and will probably raise prices yet again.

txviking

Unfortunately, other than changing citizenships, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. With no competition (for obvious reasons,) there's limited incentive to keep costs reasonable or improve the quality of the document. At this point, the cost of a passport is becoming a real impediment to international travel, particularly to lower-income families. It's a sad state of affairs.

i0wnj00

The Passport card only has black & white photo because the picture and information is printed/burned on a laminate and then affixed to the card. I know this because the laminate on my Passport card peeled off and exposed the card. I have also seen the blanks of the Passport card.

At least, the picture and information on the NGP is burned onto a polycarbonate. I would rather have my information on a sturdy surface as opposed a cheapo laminate that can be peeled off or printed on something that can be washed away if exposed to water/excessive moisture. Granted, damaged outer covers or visa pages can render a passport useless.