While they do not issue 48 page passports now, I was told in Dubai when renewing that "chipped" passports with 53 pages are due to be issued to everyone and that the 24 page passport will go away.

Has anyone seen a 53 page passport?

I have had 2 extra sets of pages inserted and they don't need blank pages to attach them to.

Wellington is obviously an exception. It should also be noted that a few high traffic missions require an appointment to be made over the web, this is generally a formality and can be made same day.

My experiences with consular services at the US Embassy in London have always required me to send my passport in and wait for a few day, either for additional pages or for a renewal passport.

Thankfully I live here and have a UK passport as well, so I can generally live without a US passport for the ~week that it takes, but I wonder if such procedures can be bypassed in an emergency (e.g., if I were a tourist).

Anyone know about the London embassy?

I would find it really surprising if this were correct (not doubting your veracity, rather that of the officer who told you this).

I say this because I would be surprised if there are enough Americans travelling a sufficient amount over the course of 10 years to fill up more than 24 pages in any one passport, and thus justify the extra cost of putting extra pages in every single passport issued. My guess is absolutely not.

I, too, have been told this by a consular official in South Africa. The 24 page passports will go away and all new US passports will have double the pages. I am not sure when this will happen, but I can verify I've been told this by another US government official.

The last time I got new pages in London I walked in and had them in under 20 minutes. i do not know if this has changed. Regarding the "need" for pages, i think that 24 page passports are quite outmoded, 24 pages is what, 15 or so usable pages? That's nothing,and if people travel at all to countries that require visas, those pages go in no time. A US citizen who does a moderate amount of business in China or Russia wil burn through all those pages in a ten year eriod only with visas for those countries alone, let alone any other travels.

I've not been to Russia since 1999... are Russian visas a sticker now? I always had the 3-fold orange or blue separate visa.

I'd love a 53 page passport - mine looks very suspicious to the Germans it seems. Lots of questions every time there.

How very interesting. I guess the scales must have tipped.

Sure. My point is that the proportion of people in these situations has always seemed quite low, and thus doesn't seem at first glance to justify the extra cost of giving extra pages to everyone - it's easier just to give extra pages to people who need them, when they ask. Obviously someone at the State Dept has found otherwise. I'm not saying it's stupid or nonsensical, I'm simply surprised and rather intrigued.

The cost of adding pages later might be significantly high for them
(considering it requires somebody to spend time on it) and prompted them
to make this change.

Or they could just go back to the old system which was 24 pages standard and 48 pages for those that request/need them??!! (also I don't get how new ones could be 53 pages, generally when printing/publishing any sort of "book" numbers should be evens in 2's or 4's).

It must mean 53 "useable" pages, surely? Obviously, you can't print a book or booklet with an odd number of pages, and as you say the number of pages is usually divisible by higher powers of 2 (8, 16, etc) — easier for printing and binding — although it doesn't have to be.

Perhaps they will use the extra pages as an excuse to raise the passport issuance fees. :D

After visiting Egypt years ago, every time I went through security screening for a flight to the US, I was asked about my Egyptian visa. Seems like they were trained to ask about it. Not a big deal, but it was always asked about.

In April I applied for new pages in my less-than-2-year-old passport. Most of the 24-page passport was already filled. Glad to know you can add extra pages multiple times.

John

A very log time ago when I had an Egyptian visa, but didn;t end up going to Egypt (like 25 years ago) I too would get asked about it........TTo my endless amusement......."Sir, why did you travel to Egypt." Me, "I've never been to Egypt". Supervisor, "You say you've never been to Egypt, but you have Egyptian stamps". Me, NO, I have an Egyptian VISA, but I never went, find me exactly where I have entry or exit stamps!"

However over the last 2 passports I have dozens of Arabic language visas and stamps and haven;t been asked about them for many years.

How inconsistent. I had Syria, Egypt, and Pakistan visas in my old US passport and never got asked about ANY of them even once.