12/22/2021- 5:18 p.m.
On December 27, the fee for a US passport book will shoot up by $20 for all customers, the US State Department has announced.Why the price hike?In a tweet, the State Department said, “The increased fee is necessary to ensure we continue to produce one of the most secure travel and identity documents in the world.”
How much will this cost you in total?
There are several personal factors that go into the cost calculation — including the type of passport you want, whether you’re renewing or getting your first one, and how fast you need it.
Then in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic was still relatively new and borders were closed in many places, that US passport allowed you in to a very limited number of places.
On December 27, the fee for a US passport book will shoot up by $20 for all customers, the US State Department has announced.Why the price hike?In a tweet, the State Department said, “The increased fee is necessary to ensure we continue to produce one of the most secure travel and identity documents in the world.”
Mexico and Turkey were two of the bigger travel names on a small list of options.Since then, that list has grown — and sometimes contracted — responding to ebbs and flows of the pandemic.
There are still popular places US citizens can’t visit for leisure travel: Japan, for instance.
But overall, US passport holders — especially those who are fully vaccinated — have a much wider selection of foreign destinations now than a year and half ago, even with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus causing worldwide concern.
Argentina and Canada opened up to American passport holders in more recent months. Much of the Americas and Europe are open.
There are a good number of choices in Africa. Asia and the Australia/Pacific region have the fewest options, still.
