Frequent international travelers appreciate that they are able to have additional visa pages added to their US passport, but sources report that this service will be discontinued at the end of 2015.
Although the US State Department has not yet put out a formal announcement of this and other changes to US passports for 2016, many media outlets report that additional passport pages will no longer be available after December 31, 2015. One Los Angeles Times article quotes Brenda Sprague, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services at the US State Department as saying “no one does [that] anymore,” but we disagree – frequent travelers DO still get additional pages added to their US passports! However, on a global scale, the US’s additional passport page service is unusual, as most other countries require travelers to renew their passports when they run out of pages. At Passportinfo.com, we have spoken to many British and Canadian citizens who have been quite jealous that US citizens have been able to have pages added to their valid passports.
With the end of the service looming, if you are running low on passport pages or have filled passport books in the past, the time to act is now. We recommend the following options:
- Have Pages Added to Your Passport Now. If you still have several years of validity on your passport, send your passport in for additional pages service now, and request the large 48 page insert. There is no extra fee for the large insert.
- Renew Your Passport Now. You can request a large 52 page book at no additional cost when you renew your passport.
If you need to get a passport for the first time, or get a passport for a minor child under age 16, you can also request the large 52 page passport book for no extra charge. Please note that the State Department sometimes runs low on stocks of large books, and may issue a standard size book instead. This is less of an issue for applicants requesting additional pages service, as the Passport Agency can simply sew in two standard-size sets of inserts if they do not have any large inserts on hand.
Passportinfo.com is in close contact with the US State Department, and will continue to bring you updates about the proposed passport changes for 2016 as they are confirmed.
Contact us for more information on proposed passport changes or if you are running low on passport pages
