TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums United States & Canada Passport renewal times

We will be renewing our passports toward the end of August after we return from our Anniversary Cruise. We have another cruise in November to Panama which requires a passport and it cannot expire within 6 months of the last day of the cruise, so that necessitates us renewing before then. I don't think we are cutting it too close from the end of August to November when we need the passports again, but can anyone provide the amount of time it took for their renewal that has done it recently? Should we opt for the expedited service (costs more but supposed to be quicker)?
Also, we don't currently have the passport card only the book. Is there any real advantage to spending the extra $$ to get the card in addition to the book??

Thanks.

Carol if you need to move this to a more appropriate Forum, please do so.

We renewed our passports online a few months back and the new passport book was delivered by mail less than 3 weeks later. We DID NOT opt for expedited service.

Thank you Fletch. I was hoping to hear something like three to four weeks. Do you have any experience with the passport card?? Any reason to get one?

If you fly within the US, and you don't have a Real ID drivers license, you should be able to use a passport card as identification at the TSA checkpoint. That way you don't have to carry your passport book.

Dan

The passport card is only valid for land and sea border crossings entry to the US, not for international air travel. It’s useful if you travel frequently by land or sea to the US from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. You can also use it as a Real ID when traveling domestically in the US by air.

I mailed my renewal in on July 28 and they cashed the check/tarted processing it on August 3. I received an email this morning that the new one is in the mail as of yesterday (August 7) on it's way to me. I did not pay for expedited.

Thanks popeyeskid- We will send them in the Monday after we get back from this weekends cruise.

Follow up post, we mailed them on Monday August 24th, and following the track info they didn't get delivered until the following Monday, August 31. We did pay the expedited fee, only because we are leaving in several weeks for a trip to the Mountains and I was hoping they would get here before then. We received them TODAY!! They are in our safe, and ready to travel with us on our November Panama Cruise. I have no second guesses about paying the expedited fee and I will sleep much better with the new passports in our possession. It only took one week to receive them after the Passport Office received them. If anyone is in need of a quick return, I would recommend sending them by a quicker method (maybe priority) so they are delivered to the Passport Office sooner.