Americans with passports that expired in the past five years are among those now eligible to renew online

The State Department on Wednesday launched a new online program that will allow adult Americans to renew 10-year passports that have expired within the past five years. People with passports that will expire within the next year are also eligible to use the new online service. 

U.S. travelers can now renew their expired passports online.  

The announcement follows the State Department’s limited relaunched of its online renewal program earlier this summer.

Travelers will now be able to pay, upload photos and apply online with no need to appear in person or send documents through the mail. The State Department estimates five million people a year will be able to use the service.

First-time applicants will still need to apply through the mail. Children also aren’t eligible to renew online. 

Rena Bitter, assistant secretary of the bureau of consular affairs at the State Department, said the agency aims to open up access to online applications for more people in the future. 

“Our goal, of course, is to get away from paper as much as we can, as quickly as possible,” Bitter said. “This is a first step in what we hope will be a much longer-term process to be able to modernize the systems that we are using.”

The processing time for renewed passports under the new online program is still six to eight weeks. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Image

Nearly half of Americans have a passport. In the fiscal year that ended in September 2023, the State Department issued more than 24 million U.S. passport books and cards, a record for the agency over a 12-month span. 

The State Department tested online passport renewals in 2022, but took the program offline in 2023. In its relaunch earlier this summer, applicants had to be at least 25 years old and already have a valid passport. 

The processing time for renewed passports under the new online program is six to eight weeks, which is the same as the standard process. Expedited service isn’t available online, the agency said.

Allison Pohle contributed to this article. Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com