passports renewal and getting the "real ID card

[bcla]

If you are renewing your passport, pay the extra $15 and get the passport card too. Can be used at land crossings and some sea ports, but is also Real ID compliant so you don't have to mess with your DL if you don't want to. Real ID is already a requirement at some federal installations. Every state seems to be different about what documents you need to bring to get the Real ID change from a non Real ID.

That's $30. Was $20 when it was first available.

I think for a child it's $15.

 

[bcla]

The fastest way would be if you have immediate travel plans, but it won't be easy. I've gotten a passport for a family member in 2 days when we had a ticket and needed to get a visa in less than two weeks. We did it at the San Francisco Passport Agency office, but that required an appointment. I have heard of these offices having "passport days" where one could apply for a routine passport without an appointment - usually on a Saturday. Haven't heard of this happening in a while. Normally they require an appointment and will charge an expedite fee.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast.html

Easiest is a matter of opinion. I get that post offices are the stereotypical place to apply for a passport, but those aren't the only places. It's almost always some sort of government/public entity, and can include libraries, city/county clerk offices, etc. I've even heard of university bookstores. They typically require an appointment, but not always. I think there are fewer that don't require one. There are some "secret places" that were available without an appointment. We got our kid's at the local university recreational gym, which was almost perfect. There was no appointment, no line (except one guy ahead of us), and it was available on Saturdays.

I have heard that the wait is pretty uniform around the country now that they redistribute passport production to different offices. I do believe if one gets a "mail in renewal", that was from one place, but I suppose even those can be sent to any of the offices for printing.

Not sure when they're continuing the online passport application. That had restrictions, such as an adult passport (and/or card) that expired in less than a year or expired less than 5 years. However, it was convenient since it didn't require getting a physical photo. It's been really odd since most places where I got real prints on real photo paper barely exist. I used to go to Target, which had real Kodak paper, but then Costco. Last time I did it (for family members) I went to a drug store, but all they had was photo printers and not real photo paper. The results were acceptable to the State Department.

 

[Skippy918]

It's insanely ironic that the gold standard for US ID is the passport, but a "RealID" driver's license makes you jump through a lot more hoops than getting a passport. The PITA of the DIY photo standards notwithstanding, the passport is MUCH easier to get.

In most states it's especially difficult to get RealID for minors, because they just don't get much "official" mail. I used DD's passport, birth certificate, original SS card, and a copy of her school transcript (but for the transcript to be valid for this purpose it needed to have her street address on it, which it didn't because her school has digitized all communications. I had to petition the school's IT Dept. to populate the transcripts with home addresses, then wait while they made the software changes.)

I’m taking my son to get his learner permit next month and he’s 15. I have a laundry list of things cause we have to prove that I am his parent, he lives at our address and is in school full time. It’s the address I am struggling with as all our bills get emailed to us and he doesn’t get any in his name.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’m taking my son to get his learner permit next month and he’s 15. I have a laundry list of things cause we have to prove that I am his parent, he lives at our address and is in school full time. It’s the address I am struggling with as all our bills get emailed to us and he doesn’t get any in his name.

Why would your state require a utility bill in a 15 year old's name to prove they live at a specific address.

For my state for example they say "If a minor child does not have a proof of address included in this list (which there are 16 types of documents listed) their parent, step-parent or legal guardian can complete a Certification of Address by providing two proofs of address along with identification."

And while my state will not accept electronic copies either (speaking towards your bills getting e-mailed part) there's a long list of documents I can provide for proof of address. Majority of our bills are paperless but I have property tax documents that are required to be mailed that I can provide, I can print out auto or home insurance documents, or for that matter I can print out utility documents. Even a letter or bill from a doctor, dentist, etc is one accepted document in my state.

I would double check what your state has for acceptable documents for a minor are.

 

[mjkacmom]

Why would your state require a utility bill in a 15 year old's name to prove they live at a specific address.

For my state for example they say "If a minor child does not have a proof of address included in this list (which there are 16 types of documents listed) their parent, step-parent or legal guardian can complete a Certification of Address by providing two proofs of address along with identification."

And while my state will not accept electronic copies either (speaking towards your bills getting e-mailed part) there's a long list of documents I can provide for proof of address. Majority of our bills are paperless but I have property tax documents that are required to be mailed that I can provide, I can print out auto or home insurance documents, or for that matter I can print out utility documents. Even a letter or bill from a doctor, dentist, etc is one accepted document in my state.

I would double check what your state has for acceptable documents for a minor are.

Our state (NJ) requires proof of residency for all, including new 17 year old drivers. If they don’t have a bank account I think they can get transcripts from the high school.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Our state (NJ) requires proof of residency for all, including new 17 year old drivers. If they don’t have a bank account I think they can get transcripts from the high school.

Right that's what I'm getting at, I was just specifying there being a clause for my state about a minor. But ultimately if the rules for a minor say they need something with the address and their name I would highly doubt that means a utility bill has to be in their name because again they are a minor. One of the ones for my state explicitly states (and works for non-minors as well).

• Current educational transcript/school grade card

There's 16 types of documents for my state to provide proof of address and multiple of them would work for a minor. So for the sake of that poster not stressing too much they might want to go back and see what documents and rules there are for their state, chances are they can find one that works for their 15 yr old and may be even easier than an adult has.

 

[NotUrsula]

I’m taking my son to get his learner permit next month and he’s 15. I have a laundry list of things cause we have to prove that I am his parent, he lives at our address and is in school full time. It’s the address I am struggling with as all our bills get emailed to us and he doesn’t get any in his name.

While it doesn't have to be a utility bill, my state does specify that you must show a postmarked document issued within the past 6 months, and that it must be addressed by name to the applicant, on letterhead and sent from an "official" source such a government agency, established school, or financial institution. If it's an envelope with a plastic "document" window in it and the name and address not printed on the envelope itself, then the envelope and the document inside must be dated within 14 days of one another, both dated within the previous 6 months, and the letterhead on the postmarked envelope and the document inside it must match.

Simplest thing to do if the school doesn't mail grades is to take him to open a "student checking" bank account in his name and have the statement mailed. Won't help you for the permit this soon, but if it's like my state, the photo has to be done again for the actual license, and at that time you can use this as one of the documents to get Real ID. Then, once the license has been obtained, he can switch the bank account to paperless billing if he prefers. He'll probably need the checking account for a part-time job soon anyway; my DD did, b/c her employer will only pay via direct deposit. (She works at the town Rec Center in the next town over.)

FWIW, she didn't order checks for the bank account and waste money on that; they printed one sheet of them for her as a backup at the branch where she got the account (since you often need to turn over a voided check to start direct deposit), but she otherwise just does most transactions online or via an ATM.

 

[RJPoste]

This is the easiest way to renew your passport. I had more hassle getting my updated picture taken since Costco no longer does passport photos.

Costco may not do photos anymore, but your local post office should.

 

[rowan1813]

Costco may not do photos anymore, but your local post office should.

My local post office only had them from 10-11:30 Mon-Wed. Not exactly useful for people who work during the week. Thankfully CVS was available.

 

[sam_gordon]

DD (renewing hers and getting name change) and DSiL (new passport) used their cell phones for their pics. Sent them to me to correctly size them (requirements are online) then printed them.

DD took hers to the post office to make sure it was good, first the guy said "the background isn't white" (off white is allowed), then said "not enough of your shoulders are showing" (no listed requirement for that). She mailed hers in and its showing as "processing". DSiLs appointment is Saturday.

They first time we got ours, I had also taken the pics, resized, and printed (<$1 for 5 of us), took them to the post office and the clerk "doesn't fit the template guide". I asked her to show me, she gets out the template, checks every pic and they're dead on.

Over the years, I've done approx 11 passport pictures for less than $5 total. I've saved enough money for a passport. Lol

 

[tvguy]

Costco may not do photos anymore, but your local post office should.

Wow, the post offices here never did photos. You had to bring your own, we always got ours done at the travel store.. That was so nice about doing it all online last year. Used my cell phone, uploaded it, framed it (after retaking it with a background the software found acceptable). Wonder why they paused online applications?

 

[bcla]

DD took hers to the post office to make sure it was good, first the guy said "the background isn't white" (off white is allowed), then said "not enough of your shoulders are showing" (no listed requirement for that). She mailed hers in and its showing as "processing". DSiLs appointment is Saturday.

Heck - I've gone to an actual passport office where I kind of knew my photo was pretty bad. The color was off from the print (was from a photo printer at Target) and it looked kind of washed out. The clerk at the passport office said it was iffy, but if there was a problem we'd find out at pickup time and they'd just ask us to provide a new photo. The passport was issued with that photo anyways.

The really crazy thing these days getting visa photos. Some countries have different sizing/composition requirements although I've gotten visas where they accept US passport size at US-based consulates since that's easier to obtain. But now some countries require that any background be electronically eliminated with a pure white background. Maybe even a requirement for a photo file to be submitted electronically. It was a pain finding a tool that would do it for free. Some worked pretty well until they wanted $5-10 to download the full-sized result.

I think Adobe might be a good choice, but they require logging in (Google/Facebook/Apple work) in order to download.

https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/remove-background

 

[bcla]

Wow, the post offices here never did photos. You had to bring your own, we always got ours done at the travel store.. That was so nice about doing it all online last year. Used my cell phone, uploaded it, framed it (after retaking it with a background the software found acceptable). Wonder why they paused online applications?

I think a lot of the places around here that used to do it have stopped, so it's mostly post offices. And most post offices don't want to have to set up to take and print photos. I went around looking for a place that doesn't require an appointment, and this was all I could find in the first 50 choices. They require filling in a survey for all walk-ins.

https://www.skylinecollege.edu/passport/

 

[NotUrsula]

Post Office here does photos (at $15/per), but only for a total of about 4 hours per week, and those appointments are booked up months in advance. The public library here has a photo booth setup at 2 of the branches, that one is $13 to do, but doesn't work for anyone shorter than 5'. AAA used to do them free of charge for members, but of course, no longer available.

The issue that I have found with doing the photo with my phone is the required image density; if the photo is good enough on the phone, it's too large to save or transmit to any other device, because the file size causes throttling.

 

[Moliphino]

Post Office here does photos (at $15/per), but only for a total of about 4 hours per week, and those appointments are booked up months in advance. The public library here has a photo booth setup at 2 of the branches, that one is $13 to do, but doesn't work for anyone shorter than 5'. AAA used to do them free of charge for members, but of course, no longer available.

The issue that I have found with doing the photo with my phone is the required image density; if the photo is good enough on the phone, it's too large to save or transmit to any other device, because the file size causes throttling.

AAA still does passport photos in the Northeast, at least. May or may not cost money, depending on membership type. $16 for non-members.

 

[sam_gordon]

Post Office here does photos (at $15/per), but only for a total of about 4 hours per week, and those appointments are booked up months in advance. The public library here has a photo booth setup at 2 of the branches, that one is $13 to do, but doesn't work for anyone shorter than 5'. AAA used to do them free of charge for members, but of course, no longer available.

The issue that I have found with doing the photo with my phone is the required image density; if the photo is good enough on the phone, it's too large to save or transmit to any other device, because the file size causes throttling.

First, try sending via email. If that doesn't work, try onedrive, or other cloud service (wetransfer, Dropbox, ftp). Failing all that, connect a cable from your phone to computer.

 

[irlandaise]

The issue that I have found with doing the photo with my phone is the required image density; if the photo is good enough on the phone, it's too large to save or transmit to any other device, because the file size causes throttling.

if there's no way to reduce the photo size without reducing the resolution on your phone, use AirDrop from an iPhone to a Mac, or the equivalent with Android and Windows. Or, as Sam mentioned, iCloud.

 

[NotUrsula]

Tried all that; didn't work because I cannot save the file as-is to the phone's storage; the phone balks at that. Using a cable doesn't work because the phone app that created the file uses an odd format that Windows can't seem to recognize at all (I also tried saving it to the phone's micro-SD file and just moving that straight to my PC, but the app won't save it to any location other than the phone's internal memory, which can't save it due to size.)

We tinkered and fiddled with it for hours and finally gave up and used DH's DSLR camera to take the photo, which worked OK to get the compression right, but none of the various app-based cropping templates would work with that on a PC, so we had to transfer it again to DD's Macbook to use her school Photoshop account to crop it properly.

It's just down to the combination of equipment that we own, but it was a major PITA.

 

[GreatLakes]

Do minors need utility bills for proof of address in some states? Here bank statements work and I can't believe any teenager wouldn't have a bank account in their name. My son's was opened the same day we found out his SSN.

I think we can also just attest to our children living with us but I have a decade before I need to worry about it.

 

[bcla]

if there's no way to reduce the photo size without reducing the resolution on your phone, use AirDrop from an iPhone to a Mac, or the equivalent with Android and Windows. Or, as Sam mentioned, iCloud.

I have various ways, but I typically use an iPhone and a Mac, where I can transfer over photos using Image Capture. The native photo format is HEIC, but my Mac can convert and reduce file size using built in tools. I typically convert to JPEG since a lot of online passport/visa editing tools don’t support HEIC.

If it’s especially tricky I just email a photo to myself on a phone/tablet and then download on my computer. It might still require format conversion.