Ha, Barb, I literally just wrote a freelance article about passports.
You can renew by mail if you have your old passport, if it's undamaged, and if it was issued after the age of 16. (Oh, it also would need to have been issued within the last 15 years.) You would also need to provide legal proof of your name change (assuming you changed your name when you got married).
To apply for a new one, you'll need to complete a Form DS-11, available on the web. Don't sign it until you're at the passport office. You'll also need two copies of a new picture, proof of citizenship, proof of identity, and a photocopy of your proof of identity.
[link]
If it has been more than 15 years and/or you were under 16, you have to start over.
The 16 thing must be new. I got mine at 15, and was able to renew it by mail when I was 20.
Five years ago, I happened to pull out my passport and discover that is was about to expire the next day. I was just going to let it go, but a well-traveled friend pitched a fit about how everyone should have a current passport in the post 9/11 world.
I really don't plan to ever use it again, but I moved heaven and earth to get that sucker updated in one day. It was not pleasant, but I'm good for another five years.
Barb, if lock picking isn't an option on Lewis' box, or if you really think it has expired, I'd counsel for starting fresh. It takes more time and money but an expired passport equals no help at all from what I was told.
eta: I should say, the 15 years was about to pass the next day.
I ran all over creation to get the pictures...which ended up making me look like I'm being goosed. It was the sort of face you make when someone says something you think you ought to have heard and you reply, "Pardon me?"
I have no passport. I've never been outside of the US.
Everyone I know thinks that's weird.
I'd really love to see Paris someday, though.
So far I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to lose weight since May.
I hear you. I've been keeping a food diary at The Daily Plate for the last few weeks to figure out why my metabolism hates me.
I have no passport. I've never been outside of the US.
I've been to Canada multiple times, but that's the only foreign country I've been to. I have no passport either.
It's always seemed to me that international travel is something you do with a significant other. Maybe I shouldn't have been waiting for an SO....
I have no passport. I've never been outside of the US.
Everyone I know thinks that's weird.
I'd really love to see Paris someday, though.
I've only been in Mexico (barely) and Canada, so no passport either. So I don't think it's weird. Paris would be cool to see and I even know someone who lives there. Not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.
When I did travel a lot, I was bummed that most custom agents didn't bother to stamp my book. Several times I had to ask.
This was problematic when my dirtbag boss did not believe that I'd gone to Scotland to deal with my friend's death.
t /unresolved resentment. Ought to take care of that, I suppose.
Timelies all!
Renewed my passport earlier this year, since I had a trip to Toronto coming up. (I had misremembered when the passport expired, but had the new one by the trip)
It boggles me that I need a passport for Canada. It just seems . . . wrong. But I need a new refrigerator before I get a passport.
