New, "More Secure" US NextGen Passport

Old Jun 11, 2022, 8:16 pm
  #631  
Suspended
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by 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....
That depends on what goes on with gas prices.

I’m out of the loop on such things for now, but I’m positive that again there will be advance, formal notice of a fee increase that will come to attention here at some point. I wish I could say that $200 passports aren’t going to be on the horizon in the next 2-4 years, but I don’t sell wishes for a reason. Even if with an inflation slowdown, we are headed toward such passport fees anyway. I really wish that enough people comes to their senses that we get out of the US WHTI nonsense requiring US citizens to have passports to fly to and from nearby countries. But this “more secure” mentality is going to be a increasingly costly endeavor for US cross-border flyers.
GUWonder is offline  
Old Jun 13, 2022, 11:14 am
  #632  
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Boston
Posts: 249
Originally Posted by 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.
How did you get a replacement Passport Card? Mailed in the peeled off laminate damaged card or they simply mailed you another one for a fee?
Magna is offline  
Old Jun 13, 2022, 12:58 pm
  #633  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: MAD
Programs: IB+, BAEC
Posts: 3,098
The next gen US one looks like a lot of the features in my Spanish passport. But in Spain I just go to the police station, pay 30€ or something like that and they give it to me right there. I have no idea why the US makes it so complicated. When I last renewed at the US consulate in Madrid, the US one took only 4 or 5 days, so I assume there's the capacity to print on demand in the embassy as well.
LupineChemist is offline  
Old Jun 13, 2022, 10:24 pm
  #634  
Suspended
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by LupineChemist
The next gen US one looks like a lot of the features in my Spanish passport. But in Spain I just go to the police station, pay 30€ or something like that and they give it to me right there. I have no idea why the US makes it so complicated. When I last renewed at the US consulate in Madrid, the US one took only 4 or 5 days, so I assume there's the capacity to print on demand in the embassy as well.
They don’t print standard US passports for applicants at that embassy either — neither the legacy version nor this “Next Gen” version. ACS at each of the relevant missions in Spain get the completed US passports delivered after production elsewhere. The primary exception to that can be the “emergency passport”, which still uses a visa-like sticker on and for the biodata of the applicant and is printed locally on the imported regular passport blanks of the legacy version.

The turnaroud time you’re seeing is largely a function of the flight connectivity between a fulfillment center for US passports and the city hosting the US mission with ACS handling submitted/received passport applications.
Xyzzy likes this.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jun 13, 2022 at 10:30 pm
GUWonder is offline  
Old Jun 14, 2022, 1:17 am
  #635  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: FRA
Posts: 229
Applicants abroad get rush passports for no extra charge because they're abroad and likely need them faster, but even in Frankfurt which is a huge mission, they print in the US and send immediately to Frankfurt (according to the status check, they printed and shipped the same day, though the consulate took a few days to sort and prepare). It's nice. I just wish they didn't issue only fat passports because I want a thin one.
cafeconleche is offline  
Old Jun 14, 2022, 7:52 am
  #636  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: JFK LGA PBI BOI
Posts: 909
My wife and my passport expired during the pandemic. Just renewed them; I placed each renewal application with old books in their own envelope with their own separate checks in another envelope to save on postage. Inside envelopes were addressed just without postage.
The same day we both got separate priority mail envelopes back. My wife got a new-gen passport and I did not both have the same issue dates.
Just a reference point, anyway glad I have the old one, feels lighter to carry
Brighton Line is offline  
Old Jun 14, 2022, 1:29 pm
  #637  
Suspended
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by cafeconleche
Applicants abroad get rush passports for no extra charge because they're abroad and likely need them faster, but even in Frankfurt which is a huge mission, they print in the US and send immediately to Frankfurt (according to the status check, they printed and shipped the same day, though the consulate took a few days to sort and prepare). It's nice. I just wish they didn't issue only fat passports because I want a thin one.
There is indeed no expedite fee charged by the State Department for passports applied for at US missions abroad. There is no approved fee on the fee schedule for expedited service at such places. Why there isn’t such a fee applicable is — IIRC and am not confusing this with something else — in large part a legacy of arrangements for domestic US applications. At US embassies/consulates abroad, this work patches in differently and activity-based costing means different things than it does across the domestic US. “User fees” are supposedly there to sort of track what ABC findings mean for a product or service’s cost to the “user”. Consular services personnel would (with some exceptions) mostly be at most regular embassies/consulates anyway, generally even more so for visa processing and the fee revenue that brings in than for US citizens abroad.
LupineChemist likes this.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jun 14, 2022 at 1:36 pm
GUWonder is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.