I have twice had US passports replaced long before one year to expiry, with no questions asked and no problem - one five year-old passport was replaced overnight, which astounded me.
To save you the trouble of asking, I needed a passport with a different number. TR ---------------------------------------- *From: *F. Scott Wilson via Mifnet <[email protected]> *To: *[email protected] *CC: *Michael Rurik Halaby <[email protected]>; Mifnet <[email protected]>; F. Scott Wilson <[email protected]> *Date: *Jul 7, 2025 13:34:41 *Subject: *[Mifnet đ° 73003] Re: NNN WSJ: America Has Pulled Off the Impossible. It Made Getting a Passport Simple. > ï»ż > ï»ż > ï»ż On my birthday in early March â24 my Global Entry card expired, but I > didnât know it. I was at BDL for a Jet Blue fight in mid-March, but my > boarding pass didnât show TSAâïž.  Jet Blue couldnât explain why; all efforts > to correct the omission were futile. I was furious and eventually cleared > through the other line, which reminded me why I liked TSAâïž so much.  After > returning home I found out my Global Entry had expired, and with it went all > TSAâïž rights. > > You renew your Global Entry online, but if you do it AFTER it expires you are > placed in the Bad Boy queue. I waited nearly six months for my renewal to > come through. They warn you that it will take that long. > > Forewarned, four months ago (March â25) my US passport hit the nine year > mark. I was determined to get ahead of the curve, especially with a trip > planned to France in early September (by which point my passport would be > within six months of expiry and therefore essentially expired).  One cannot > apply for a passport renewal more than a year before expiration (Iâm guessing > there are exceptions, but who wants to try to exercise exception rights?).  > So on the morning of my birthday last March I made the application on the new > online passport renewal website. I had my new passport in ten days - I > couldnât believe it. > > You do not need to send in your old passport. You just throw in with your > collection of all or your other expired - and canceled - passports. > > For the photo, you stand against a blank wall and have someone take a snap of > you with your phone. The image must be from the waist up. Such a change from > the old days, with all those specific details about head shot size, etc.  You > then transfer the photo to a computer where you can copy a file link to the > photo and paste the link into your application. Even though the photo you > send must be from the waist up, the image in your passport looks the same as > before- just a head shot. Iâm curious as to why they require a waist-up shot. > > After my experience with the Global Entry renewal, I was astounded at how > fast things went with the new online passport renewal system. I agree that > the gang at State who developed this deserve a Nobel, or an Academy Award, or > something like that. Huge improvement - especially after the recent problems > they had. > > Scott > > >> On Jul 5, 2025, at 5:16âŻPM, Michael Rurik Halaby via Mifnet >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> ï»ż >> *America Has Pulled Off the Impossible. It Made Getting a Passport Simple.* >> >> *Washington isnât known for tech innovation. How did a team of bureaucrats >> put their stamp on a process that hadnât changed in 50 * >> >> >> The experience was so weirdly efficient and unexpectedly refreshing that I >> had to find the people responsible and find out how they did it. >> There were hundreds of people involved, but the Online Passport Renewal team >> was led by Luis Coronado, the Bureau of Consular Affairsâs chief information >> officer, and Matt Pierce, who is officially the acting principal deputy >> assistant secretaryâand unofficially the guy in charge of Americaâs >> passports. >> Pierce has been a passport geek for his entire career. Growing up, he >> admired a family friend who worked for the State Department and wanted to be >> just like her. When he graduated college in 2007, the department was hiring >> specialists in the Bureau of Consular Affairs to handle the biggest surge in >> passport applications of all time. Heâs been there ever since. By the time >> he was in a role overseeing passport operations, he knew better than anyone >> in the U.S. that a tech upgrade was badly overdue. >> >> Advertisement >> >> âThe passport process,â he told me, âhas largely remained unchanged in its >> basic form since the 1970s.â >> >> U.S. passports issued by yearSource: U.S. State DepartmentNote: Before 1995 >> is calendar year; 1995 and later is â for fiscal years ending Sept. 30 >> '05 '10 '15 1975 '20 '80 '85 '90 '95 2000 0 5 10 15 20 25 million >> >> Total number of U.S. passports in circulationSource: U.S. State >> DepartmentNote: For fiscal years ending Sept. 30 >> '05 '10 '15 '20 1990 '95 2000 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 million >> >> But in the 1970s, the U.S. issued three million passports a year. This year, >> it will be more than 25 million. Even since the 1990s, the share of >> Americans with passports has gone from 5% to 50%. >> There are more than 1,000 passport adjudicators stationed across the >> country, verifying applications and guarding against security risks, fraud >> and identity theft. But the system wasnât designed for such a heavy >> workload. A combination of record demand, hiring freezes and higher >> attrition left the bureau in a tricky position: too many applications and >> not enough people to review them. >> By 2023, there was such a backlog that Americans found themselves waiting >> months for passports. >> As boxes of paperwork spilled into the hallways, bureau officials scrambled >> to keep up. Long before DOGE, they even brought in outsiders to hunt for >> inefficiencies. To do their jobs, passport specialists go through a bin of >> applications, return that bin when theyâre done and then grab another. At >> one point, the bins were moved closer to their desks to save them a few >> seconds of walking, hoping those seconds would add up over time. But >> ultimately, the bureauâs power was limited. >> âOur only tool to produce more passports was elbow grease,â said Rena >> Bitter, the assistant secretary for consular affairs during the Biden >> administration. âObviously, that had to change.â >> It was less obvious how. After all, Washington is not exactly synonymous >> with tech innovation. For almost a decade, the bureau had discussed the >> possibility of online passport renewal. But if it were easy to do, it would >> have been done already. Even today, few countries offer fully digital >> passport renewal. So most people were skeptical the U.S. government could >> pull it offâincluding people inside the U.S. government. >> >> Advertisement >> >> That skepticism only deepened in 2022 when a pilot version of the Online >> Passport Renewal program caused more problems than it solved. >> Suddenly, the same passport whizzes who could fly through 200 applications a >> day on paper were processing fewer than 10 a day online. The latent tech and >> unfamiliar system were so disruptive that passport specialists resorted to >> printing out applications and scanning them again. >> When the pilot ended in 2023, the Online Passport Renewal team studied what >> went wrong and realized: They had changed too much at once. Itâs a lesson >> they kept in mind when they decided to give the program another shot in 2024. >> >> >> *SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS* >> >> /Have you renewed your passport recently? How did it go? Join the >> conversation below./ >> >> >> >> This time, they launched a tightly controlled beta version and scaled up >> carefully. They expanded access in phases over three months starting last >> June and collected feedback every step of the way. They fixed errors that >> could have made millions of Americans crazy, like a bug that resulted in >> photos getting rejected without explanation. And last September, it finally >> happened: Online Passport Renewal opened to the general public. >> Soon afterward, Pierce was boarding a cruise for a family vacation when his >> phone kept ringing until he picked up. >> âIt was this nice old lady from Arkansas,â he said, âtrying to use Online >> Passport Renewal.â >> >> Advertisement >> >> He walked her through the processâthen walked on the ship. >> âYou will not meet a group of people who are more dedicated to customer >> service than people who work in passports,â Bitter said. >> And when the bureau surveyed Americans like that nice old lady about their >> experience, 86% said that renewing their passports online increased their >> trust in the government. These days, thatâs not merely impressive. It sounds >> almost impossible. >> Now they just have to wait 10 years for a chance to do it again. >> Write to Ben Cohen at [email protected] >> >> https://www.wsj.com/business/us-passport-online-renewal-e58b51d1 >> >> Michael Rurik Halaby, FRAeS >> UK mobile/WhatsApp: +447711298408[tel:+447711298408] >> [email protected] >> instagram: halabyaero >> www.halaby.aero[http://www.halaby.aero/] >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Revised: 20250507 >> >> You are receiving The Mifnet because you requested to join this list. >> >> The Mifnet is largely a labor of love, however the infrastructure isn't >> exactly cost-free. 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