The US has agreed to allow US citizens to fly back to the US from abroad on expired US passports that meet certain requirements.

If the passport was a full-duration passport -- 10 year validity for adult passports or 5 year validity for U16 passports -- that expired/expires in 2020 or 2021, this change in policy may be something to consider with regard to the pressure to apply for passports.

https://www.state.gov/return-travel-...u-s-passports/

Thank you for sharing.

Travel on expired passport with dual nationality
 

I saw the latest news about being able to travel to the US on an expired passport. I am a UK/US passport holder and am due to fly to the UK next week. Just realized my US passport is expired as of two weeks ago. I should be able to fly out using my valid UK passport and then return to the US with the expired one given the new rules.
anyone think this won’t work? I know technically the US wants you to use the US when coming and going but I have used my British passport many times when leaving the US and never any issues. Thank you!

As you said, no issue for a US citizen to leave the US on a UK passport. I've done this many times myself. The only potential issue is coming back, because you must use your US passport. While CBP at your US arrival airport will certainly accept your expired passport under this guidance (and I think they'd let you in without the guidance as long as you can prove your US citizenship, assuming you made it that far), there is some risk the airline won't allow you to check in if they're not familiar with this or their systems won't permit it. I'd be more comfortable dealing with this at a big airport like LHR than a small out-station. But if the trip is important, there's not much else you can do beyond searching for last-minute passport agency appointments.

has it become hard to get an emergency passport from the UK embassy to come home? when I was there in late august I was able to get one and used it a few times before replacing.

thanks. I’m flying back via LHR on BA. Hopefully they are up to speed on the new guidance re expired passports.

I’m not exactly sure. But now with this new guidance, they probably aren’t issues emergency passport renewals.

Emergency passport renewals being issued outside of the US are still going to be done. But who will need them is going to be different for the rest of this year than it would have been without this change in US policy.

This change eases up the pressure on US embassies/consulates from passport applicants who could otherwise apply in the US and wait it out in the US for passports being issued and delivered in the US; this change frees up staff at/for embassies/consulates to deal more easily with ACS and other issues instead. But what it mainly is to do is ease up a bit of the demand for new renewal passports for the remainder of this year.

When the airline rep uses the information into TIMATIC, they should sort of get it. But I suspect that this will go over initially more easily at airports that have CBP’s IAP in place — airports like LHR, AMS, CDG — or airports where there are US common carriers with direct flights to the US.

Technically, a US citizen leaving the US to the UK is supposed to be in possession of a valid US passport at the time of flying out of the US too, but enforcement under still applicable US law for that too has never been what it was initially intended to generally be on that.

Before, during and since 2020, I’ve been with US-European dual-citizen travel party members who have flown to the US on their US VWP countries’ passports because their US passports were expired. With relatively recently expired US passports in hand for presentation at US airports of entry, CBP has been accepting these kind of relatively recently expired US passports as proof of US identity and US citizenship at US airports of entry. Of the times I’ve been around myself for this in a private capacity, not even a single reference to secondary — literally just presented at the US airports of entry as a US citizens with the expired US passports and told things like “welcome/welcome back, now go get the passport renewed.” It’s likely to go much the same way on entry now with this new policy. The difference with this new policy is that the airlines serving the US will now be able to more readily allow non-dual-citizens to also more easily return to the US with an expired US passports and thereby ease up some of the pressure on passport application processing and on traffic at the embassies/consulates.

At the margins, this change should tend to provide some improvement for domestic passport applicants’ turn times, but I doubt it will be noticed a whole lot by most domestic applicants.

Hello,
So is it safe (and legal of course) for you to leave the US on a UK passport? I am UK/US citizen but I'm still waiting for my US passport to arrive. With long delays in processing times of US passports, I was wondering if I am able to leave the US with my UK passport. I will have my US passport in hand before returning to the US

Does anyone have experience with a similar situation?

The US currently does not have formal exit controls. Airlines require you to show that you are admissible at your destination. As long as you can enter your country of destination with your UK passport, you will be fine.

Please refer to the following thread in the Practical Travel Safety and Security Issues forum:

UPDATE for Renewal of Minors' passports w/o expedited processing
 

6/3 1711 hrs - Received email notification for both applications: "Application status: approved. You should receive your book and card around June 9."
6/3 1901 hrs - Received email notification for both applications: "DoS has shipped your book and card using Priority Mail. Click confirmation number xxxxx to track. You should receive passport around June 9."

Tracking number indicates passports/books being sent from Little Rock, Arkansas distribution center and should arrive on June 7. If they arrive as scheduled it will have taken 12 weeks from submission of application to delivery.

Passport approved but not shipped
 

Hello everyone,

my expedited passports for my two sons were approved Wednesday June 2nd but still don’t have a tracking number. I need to fly out on Thursday and we’re getting very nervous. I see most people got their tracking a few hours after being approved. Should I be concerned?

So I submitted a renewal by mail for a family member on 4/23/21, and my check hasn't been cashed on 6/4/21. Is anyone else seeing long delays?