By Doyinsola Oladipo
NEW YORK -Americans looking to renew their passports will be able to do so online starting on Wednesday as the beta phase of the program that has been running for two months will be opened nationally, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of State said it has increased hiring, brought on experts and improved its website in an attempt to meet the growing demand for consular services, including processing passport renewals and issuing travel visas.
“Tomorrow online passport renewal will go live for the first time ever for the entire country,” Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma told a travel conference in New York.
About 200,000 people participated in the beta program and the State Department estimated that nearly 50% of renewals will be done online in the near future.
There are certain qualifications to be able to use the digitized application for passport renewals, including being located in the United States. Passports that have been expired for more than five years are not permitted to be renewed online, Verma said.
As far as processing times, “it won’t necessarily be faster,” he added.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jamie Freed)
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