GOOD MORNING SO if you are in the United States and your passports expire sometime in the next 4+ years, may I suggest along with many others that it would NOT BE A BAD IDEA to renew them early? I work at a library that also serves as a passport-acceptance agency, and we have been DELUGED with calls/appointments. One coworker mentioned she saw that passport applications/renewals have been up 800% since the election and MAY I SAY I AM NOT SURPRISED. Paul and I got our passports in the VERY EASY TO REMEMBER month of November 2016, so we technically have almost two more years before they expire, but we are going to just go ahead and renew them now. I was hand-wringing a little about the waste of money, and William (age 23 and this election was HIS 2016) said “What is that, a 20% loss? Like, $32? to get it renewed NOW instead of After Whatever Happens, Happens?” Which helped considerably.
I do think that, given the incoming administration’s apparent determination to appoint the LEAST qualified and MOST destructive candidates to each vitally important post, it wouldn’t be weird to wonder if the passport-processing agencies might not be quite the same after January 2025, when someone takes his lil executive hammer and uses it to flail away at all those nasty agencies that hold up the government and nation.
Mine expires at the end of the year, and the election was the kick in the rear that got me to get the renewal process going. It already takes 4-6 weeks, is it going to double or triple or worse under the orange one.
THANK YOU THANK YOU for this kick in the butt – mine is about to expire and I’ve been putting it off (?? why?? I travel all the time??) but I’m taking the photo RIGHT NOW, TODAY, to kick the process off.
As the parent of a trans kid (who is 21 but in college), we are now racing against time to get the name change paperwork filed — she goes to school out of state so we can’t file it until she’s home for winter break. No idea if we’ll be able to get her passport changed after Jan 2025, but one step at a time. Sending love and support to all trans kids (and parents) out there. This is gonna be a looong four years — all we can do is stick together.
As a parent of a trans kid in NZ, my heart goes out to those of you in the US. As if it isn’t hard enough for them outside of political shenanigans.
I don’t really travel but at some point decided I should have a passport anyway, and I have now renewed it and my joke as a non-traveler with a passport has always been “You never know when you might need to flee the country.” That seems unsettlingly possible now.
I got mine done earlier this year, well before the election. Now I am not 100% sure *why* – since there is indeed this wonderful window of time before inauguration – *but* on the other hand now I am not in the queue so others can hopefully get their passports faster (I cannot imagine that 8x the normal workload will be… speedy), so maybe that is good, I guess?
(after Kamala joined the race, I went “whew” and kept asking people to vote, vote, vote but otherwise relaxed to some degree, and now I am… uh… un-whew-ing. And also working on staying very on top of prescriptions, since one of my [easy to manufacture, generic, so-cheap-manufacturers-are-not-excited-about-it] meds had a [fortunately brief!] national shortage in 2019 due to FDA Stuff with Trump – the manufacturers are legally required [via “we let you do this, so you have to do these public health good things” agreements, if I understand it correctly?] to produce enough of it per year, but if I recall correctly [it’s been a while…], he had been messing with the regulatory bodies that enforce that stuff and oh, hey, distraction-from-enforcement has practical regulatory consequences even without actual deregulation…)
My passport is already expired (long expired) and I have thinking I need to get on that.
Our family consists of a lesbian couple, one of whom works in the labor movement, a young adult who’s done work for Democratic political campaigns, and a trans young adult, so if they did start rounding people up (which I think they probably won’t do, but probably isn’t really good enough), we’d be somewhere on the list.
A very good idea to renew now! I am also getting up to date on my vaccinations (shingles, tetanus) because who can say how available those will be?!
I just finished getting new passports for my kids. Passports for minors only last for five years, which is a rip, but tbf my younger daughter was an actual baby in her previous photo and could have been anyone. Now on to my husband’s, which expires next summer. We’re going do it now (also losing some time- totally worth it) and we’re going to try the new (?) online renewal option so here’s hoping it works.
My husband JUST completed the online renewal, and was surprised to receive his passport in only two weeks! Hope yours goes as smoothly!
Two weeks!!! I got passports for my kids in 2024 and it took something like 14 weeks!
Um, that was supposed to say 2023
We just got passports for our kids and I was surprised at the fast turnaround. My husband’s expires in a couple of years and now I’m debating if we should also eat the costs and renew now.
I’m already stressed in advance thinking of future ADHD med shortages. They’re pretty vital for my family and it’s already a hassle getting our monthly prescriptions now.
Entire family got passports in November 2020 and all but Youngest’s are good for 10 years. Because Youngest was under 16 it was only good until November 2025. Was going to wait until Youngest turned 16 (June 2025) to get it renewed since it will be good for 10 years instead of 5 more but decided not to wait and got it renewed two weeks ago. The person at the passport place was like “if you wait until June 2025 it’s good for 10 years” and I was like “yes, but we’re still doing it now” No regrets.