Passport fees going up?

[n2doc]

(CNN) -- Get ready to open your wallet a little wider to satisfy your travel bug: It may soon cost more to apply for a new U.S. passport or renew an old one, and the news is not sitting well with some lawmakers.

The State Department is proposing fee hikes that would require adults applying for their first passport book to pay $135 -- a 35 percent increase from the current $100 fee.

(The cost of the wallet-size passport card, which Americans can use on certain trips closer to home, would rise from $45 to $55 for first-time applicants.)

Want to add more visa pages to your passport book? It's free now, but you would have to shell out $82 under the proposed fee schedule.

The renewal fee for passport books would rise to $110 -- up from the current $75.

There's even a new fee if you'd like to formally renounce your U.S. citizenship -- it costs nothing now, but the price tag would be $450 if the proposal is approved.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/03/04/passport.fees/index.html?hpt=C2

[brendan120678]

1. Which reminds me, mine expires in June...

gotta get it renewed. Even though it's rarely used, better to have one if needed, I suppose, then to have to rush to get one in an emergency.

[SoxFan]

2. Yeah, I need one too

Planning on going to Montreal at the end of April. Didn't used to need one for Canada.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Have you applied for one?

If not, better do it most soonest, these things can take a while.

[SoxFan]

4. Should get the birth certificate this week

I talked to some folks in a congressional office who said they can give it a kick in the pants if time becomes tight.

[Paper Roses]

6. Ditto. I happened to look at mine yesterday. It will expire in 6 months.

Think I'll renew it right away. I may not live another 10 years but I'll be darned if I'll give them any more $$$ if I don't have to.

Phooey, I have to get a new photo too. Yipes, thats a scary thought. At my age, 10 years ago is a huge difference in photo's.

Maybe I will get to go to Italy someday so I think I'll keep it up to date. Besides, the initial paperwork is a pain.

[brendan120678]

8. I've matured in appearance a little since my last passport photo...

I was 21 then, I am 31 now.

I had longer hair then - down to my shoulders. I keep it pretty much high and tight now.
Different glasses frames as well - definitely more trying-to-hard-to-be-a-hippie-college-kid looking frames back then. Much more practical and sensible now.

[hunter]

5. One of these days the fences will turn to keep us in.

The system already discourages travel abroad. You can't leave or return the U.S. without fear of being groped, detained, or harassed at the boarder, even when your papers are in perfect order.

[Tracer]

7. Two years ago, on an out-of-country vacation ...

... I grabbed my passport and packed it.

When I got home, I discovered that I had packed an out-of-date one! This passport was examined several times at airports --- and NO ONE even noticed that it was old.

(I do have a current one, and did then too).

[snooper2]

9. That's still pretty cheap...

and good for what seven years...

[tammywammy]

10. 10 years. n/t