Avoid hassles and cancellation of your dream trip by renewing your passport today. If your passport is bound to expire for the next few years, don't wait until it's 2017.
The State Department announced that it is better for citizens who have to renew their passport and who are looking into obtaining one to process it earlier rather than later.
After the 9/11 commission of 2007, where it stated that citizens should acquire a passport before traveling to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Canada, the department encountered a heavy influx of passport applicants which totaled to 18 million people. After ten years, those passports are expected to expire by 2017 and 2018, according to the department's website.
The State Department is now experiencing an increase demand of passport renewals. 15.5 million people applied in 2015 and the numbers is expected to rise the following years. Because of this, the department expects to have a backlog which will result in passport application delays through 2018.
Apart from that, the new US passport is added by security features to help aid from fraud. Also the REAL ID Act of 2005 will render state licenses unusable for travel if they don't have the machine-readable chip. The chip contains personal information which will be scanned through a computer. The deadline of this Act for enforcement is on the 22nd of January 2018.
The enforcement of this act will contribute to heighten the number of applicants for acquiring passports, too, since some states are finding it hard to comply for the new technology required to be used and implemented. If licenses can't be used for air travel and domestic trips, more people will have to apply for passports, according to USA Today.
To renew your passport, you can apply online in the State Department's website and fill up applications. You can also apply in person at the post office near you.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
