The Process to Get a US Passport May Finally Be Entering the 21st Century

It’s not easy for Americans to get new passports. In addition to high wait times, the standard application process is confusing and outdated, requiring customers to take multiple offline steps before handing in an application in person. The Biden administration is clearly aware of the customer-unfriendly process—the 2021 executive order (EO) focusing on federal customer experience refers to the passport process’s time and money costs to “print, go to a post office, and use a paper check”—and fortunately the latest presidential budget includes $163 million for the State Department to “to revamp the delivery of Passport Services so the public can access core services online.” With funding and political momentum, the State Department should leverage proven features for a modern website—that allows applicants to complete all steps online, such as completing forms, uploading documents and photos, scheduling appointments, and making payments online—and invest in better back-end IT that improves customer experience, reduces waiting periods, and ultimately brings American passport services into the 21st century.

For many Americans, passports are the most highly valued identification document because they prove citizenship and allow people to travel internationally. As such, issuing passports is one of the most critical services the federal government provides. Unfortunately, the State Department’s archaic application process includes multiple manual steps and long processing times.

While customers can access general information online, individuals must take several offline steps and physically show up in person to apply for a passport. Customers must either acquire a paper form from a local passport services office or download and print a form online after filling in their details. The in-person application process includes other manual steps, such as buying a printed passport photo that meets specific size and resolution standards, bringing in originals and photocopies of citizenship evidence and ID, and having to pay $130 by either check or money order. The process is an exercise in obsolescence.

Customers jump through hoops just to wait 10-13 weeks for their passport for routine processing and 7-9 weeks for expedited if they shell out another $60. Two to three months is slow.

For passport renewals, the State Department piloted an online process beginning in August 2022 that aimed to make the process easier while reducing processing times. Unfortunately, that often wasn’t the case, and the agency paused online passport renewal in February 2023 to “continue to make improvements to the customer experience” with the promise of a more complete rollout of the online renewal process later this year. In the meantime, customers must return to renewing by mail or in person.

The online renewal pilot incorporated the State Department’s new MyTravelGov feature, an online customer account that only allows users to apply for a “Consular Report of Birth Abroad” now that the online passport renewal feature is paused. The State Department should focus on expanding MyTravelGov’s digital features in the passport services modernization effort to include first-time applications as well as replacing lost, damaged, or incorrect passports.

Through MyTravelGov, passport services customers should be able to complete and submit required forms online, scan and upload documents, take and submit passport photos, make payments, check the status of their application or renewal, and schedule appointments. These features represent basic expectations for customers in the digital era.

Furthermore, users should be able to complete these services with a smartphone. Right now, MyTravelGov isn’t compatible with the Safari web browser on iOS, meaning iPhone users have to download Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge to fully access MyTravelGov on their phones despite over 90 percent of iPhone users preferring the default Safari browser. The State Department doesn’t need to build a standalone MyTravelGov app, but it should adopt a mobile-first design approach given the high number of Americans that rely on their smartphones for such services.

With the State Department receiving more data electronically, it’s vital the agency has strong internal IT, such as an effective client relationship management (CRM) system, that can improve back-end processing. A CRM system uses tasks and screen flows that align with appropriate business processes to get processing time down to minutes. Furthermore, online submission and processing can be coupled with application programming interfaces—software that allows two or more computer systems to talk to each another—to connect the State Department’s IT with state and local databases to offer a pathway to real-time verification of Social Security numbers and birth certificates.

State Department staff shouldn’t be rifling through hundreds of papers, performing tedious data entry, and verifying each piece of evidence. Much of this processing can be automated, allowing State Department staff to quickly review an application or renewal and move on. There is no reason why issuance should be more than a week.

In short, a simple, yet robust, set of digital systems like the ones outlined here would greatly improve customer experience and accelerate processing times. Right now, emergency processing for passports can be completed in a matter of days, so it appears the core issue is the State Department trying to deal with unprecedented demand and a backlog of paper applications and renewals. Shifting data collection and processing from mail and paper to digital can significantly help the State Department manage demand at a larger scale. In fact, with opportunities like facial recognition technology incorporated into MyTravelGov, the State Department may decide in the future that in-person appointments are no longer necessary for certain applications, which may be the key to getting standard processing times under one week.

The State Department has political buy-in and incoming funding to transform what is currently an arduous, manual, paper-filled process for a critical government service into a simple, seamless digital experience that allows people to get their passports faster. Implementing online submissions that work with smart back-end IT isn’t particularly complex or expensive, and there’s no reason the agency can’t make all passport processing services fully online and dramatically faster by the end of 2025.