US Passport renewal / extra pages Q&A thread
 

MODERATOR NOTE: SUBJECT WAS BUMPED IN OCTOBER 2015 AND COMBINED WITH SIMILAR NEW THREAD FOR EASY ACCESS

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My passport has room for about 3 more stamps. Expires 04/10/09. No interntiaonal travel plans til 10/18, then Israel/Greece/Cypris/Turkey/France.

I assume I should should get a renewal passport? Do any of these countries worry about under 6 months left? if I just got extra pages, would I be able to just walk into the NY office and have them glued?

What's the wait time for expedited passport renewal these days? Any agency folks recommend? i'd rather spend more than have to go to the NY office!

Thanks

I wouldn't waste money on an agency. I overnighted my expedited renewal on 8/18, and got my new passport on the 26th...so 8 days door to door. And I even had a name change. ^

State currently lists wait times of 4 weeks for standard service and 2 for expedited. http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...sing_1740.html

While you can add pages for free, given your impending expiration, I would just renew. When you do, you may wish to request extra pages (enclose a signed letter with your application) so that you get them from the get go.

Here's another related question: can you request extra pages more than once for the same passport book?

I've already had one set of extra pages added, but I travel internationally so much that I doubt I will make it to my expiration date with any available slots.

(I recall once seeing a guy checking in at ORD with a very worn US passport that was as thick as his wallet! The ticket agent whistled as she tried to hold all of the pages to swipe the ID page. The poor guy must get sent to secondary customs inspection on a constant basis to explain all of the international travel.)

If I can't get more than one set of extra pages added, should I just renew early, even if it's a couple of years in advance of the expiration?

Yes. There are some limits, but usually at least three extra sets are fine (I've heard of four or five, too). It's a physical issue more than anything. In addition, I think there needs to be a blank page for the insertion to occur.

Sure you can. In my old US passport, I had extra pages added three times. My passport was half an inch thick. When I got the last lot added, the woman at the US Embassy in Zagreb told me that they would only add three extra sets. Thankfully, I was only about ten months away from expiry.

Wow. I never, ever got a hard time coming through US immigration with a huge passport, but YMMV.

It really doesn't matter. You'll have to renew sooner or later. But there should be no reason why you cannot get extra pages added when you need them.

Let me add one more thing: I think regulations may have changed in the past couple of years (someone with more knowledge of this than I, please feel free to comment).

For the first couple of extra page sets for my US passport that I got (in 2001 and 2004), they had the name of the consulate/embassy written on them. The last set that I got (in 2006) had "US Department of State" written on it.

I got chatting with the woman in the US Embassy in Zagreb. She said that they have changed the regulations whereby embassies no longer issue ten-year passports on the spot. Rather, they issue emergency passports, but all ten-year passports are made in the US.

I got my last US passport renewed through the US Embassy in London. The place of issue reads "US Department of State" (instead of somewhere like Boston, like my previous one). Apparently they send through a batch of passports every day (or every week? I cannot remember) to Washington who makes them all and send them right back.

This change of regulations might explain why some people in the past were able to have four or five sets of extra pages but now they cannot.

Greece, for one, requires a passport to be valid for 6 months beyond the intended stay and that there be at least one blank visa page.

Adding pages at an embassy is the fastest and cheapest method: 30 minutes and free. According to Dept. of State you must have 2 or fewer visa pages left with 2 years' to go on validity. However, one supposes this is not strictly enforced.

Thanks for the assistance, everyone!

I do not think that required anymore. They just stick the new pages in the
middle with a transparent tape. Mine was done on top of filled pages
but you could clearly see the old stamps below the tape.

cpx is correct. I was in DXB for a few days before continuing on to South Africa. I noticed in my passport I only had one square left, so I headed over to the US Consulate and they gladly, quickly, and easily added two set of extra pages to my passport. They just used a special, clear tape to put them in, with a notice that the extra pages were added on 28 Feb 2008 with my passport number. Since then, I've entered approximately 10 new countries without any problems at all.

Passport
 

I had my passport renewed this year and requested extra pages which wasn't done. I would question whether it was an oversight or they just don't do that anymore. I am sure if I just sent my passport in for more pages it would have been done.

I've read on a few other threads that they do not issue a 48 page
passport anymore...

Any first hand experience with 48 page passport? (within past year or so)

When I renewed a year ago, I was told that they don't have 48 page booklets anymore, but you could still request additional pages at the time of issuance. (They just insert them as extra pages when they print the initial passport.) I sent a signed letter in with my renewal and received back such a passport.

Since then, I seem to recall a couple people reporting that they actually got a 48 page booklet, and not just additional pages.

At any rate, be it a 48-page booklet or a 24 page booklet plus a 24 page insert, you can get extra pages at the time of issue.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/add/add_850.html
"You may request more Visa pages in your passport at no additional cost. To do so, please attach a signed request for additional Visa pages to be added to your application."

US Consulate in T'ronna-eh?
 

in June of this year added ~13 pages lettered A-Z to both our passports, after R and I, U.S. citizens, applied there and left our passports for ~48 hours.
On R's arrival at Pearson (YYZ) the agent had said something to the effect, "Congratulations, you are now illegal," meaning "You have no more space available, even for an exit stamp."
On their behalf, tho, I must say, Consulate staff were especially gracious, and sped us ahead of others waiting.
Unlike R, I had 6-7 empty pages in my ~6 months old/ recently-renewed passport, and still the consulate added in the extra pages, anyway.
What does seem ill thought-out tho', is why the people who are requiring and supplying passport control aren't also the agents who can help the passport owner meet those (gummint) exigensies, in this case, on-the-spot extra pages.:confused: And especially because it took heroic perseverance to battle through convoluted red tape both online and on the phone, to find out particulars about where, when, and how to get more pages. (You don't think the agent at the airport proffered any of that info, do you? Silly you!!!:td:)