In case you haven’t heard it, the U.S. government needs more money.
So now the State Department — our second favorite department next to only Homeland Security — has proposed to raise passport fees 35 percent to $135 for adults. (Passport renewals will jump to $110 — instead of the $75. Anyone under 18 will have to pay $105, up from $85.) The biggest jump in the fees is a doubling of the “Passport Book Security Surcharge” from $20 to $40.
If you want to add some pages to your passport, that will now cost you $82 — and the traditional $5 fee will double to $10 to cost additional processing costs.
According to the proposal to raise fees — which includes a host of other fee increases for services provided by the State Department — those little passport cards will also get more expensive — costing $60, up from $45.
So if you want to save a few dollars, go ahead and send out for your passport now — the changes won’t take affect until March 7. You can file online here.
