sec state travel

• First Name is a required field.
• Last Name is a required field.
• Please enter your email address.
• Please enter a valid email address.
• At least one Country must be selected.
• Travel.State.Gov
• U.S. Embassies & Consulates
• Country Information
• Latest Travel Advisories

24 Hour Consular Emergency Line: U.S. 1.888.407.4747 / Outside the U.S. 1.202.501.4444

This site is managed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

OMB Control No: 1405-0152, Estimated Burden: 20 minutes, Expiration Date: 6/30/2026.

Update April 12, 2024

Information for u.s. citizens in the middle east.

• Travel Advisories |
• Contact Us |
• MyTravelGov |

Find U.S. Embassies & Consulates

Travel.state.gov, congressional liaison, special issuance agency, u.s. passports, international travel, intercountry adoption, international parental child abduction, records and authentications, popular links, travel advisories, mytravelgov, stay connected, legal resources, legal information, info for u.s. law enforcement, replace or certify documents.

Get a Passport

Renew or Replace a Passport

Get My Passport Fast

Prepare to Apply

Passport Help

Legal Matters

Share this page:

Renew by Mail

Change or Correct a Passport

Report my Passport Lost or Stolen

Replace a Limited Validity Passport

Get Copies of Passport Records

Follow these steps to renew your passport and track your status:

Confirm you meet the requirements

• Fill out your form online and print it
• Submit your most recent passport
• Submit other documents (if you are changing your name)

Provide a photo

Calculate fees.

• Submit application
• Enroll in email updates

Getting a New Passport for a Child : You cannot renew a passport for a child under age 16. You must apply again in person using Form DS-11. 

Renewing a Passport Outside the United States : Learn how to renew your U.S. passport if you live in a foreign country.

Watch this video to learn if you can renew your passport by mail.

Renew by mail if you respond "Yes" to all statements below about your most recent passport:

• I can submit it with my application.
• It is not damaged (other than normal  wear and tear ).
• I have never reported it lost or stolen.
• It was issued within the last 15 years.
• It was issued when I was age 16 or older.
• It was issued in my current name, or I can provide another document such as a marriage certificate or divorce decree that is evidence of my name change.
• It was not limited to less than the normal 10 year period of validity because I've lost multiple passports or I've had multiple damaged passports. 

If you do not meet these requirements to renew, go to one of these pages to learn how to apply:

Adult Applying

Children Under 16

Child Age 16-17

Fill out your form and print it

Use our Form Filler tool  to fill out your form on a desktop or laptop computer and then print it. If you are experiencing technical issues with the Form Filler, download a PDF . 

Tips to complete your form:

• Complete all parts of the form.  Sign and date your form  before you mail it.
• Print your form on single-sided paper. We do not accept double-sided forms. 
• Double check the information you entered on the form filler for your date of birth and previous passport issuance date if you did not get the form you expected to receive.
• You can renew a passport book , a passport card , or both documents.
• Use Form DS-82 to apply for your first passport book if you only have a passport card, or to apply for your first passport card if you only have a passport book.  
• You may get a larger passport book with more visa pages, at no additional cost, by checking the 'large book' box at the top of the DS-82.
• If renewing from Canada, do not include your Canadian Social Insurance Number on the form in place of your U.S. Social Security number. 

Submit your most recent U.S. passport

When you renew by mail or in person, you must submit your most recent passport(s) with your application. We will return your most recent passport book or card, but generally it will come in a separate mailing up to 8 weeks after your completed passport arrives. Learn below what document to submit based on what you want to renew:

Submit other documents if you are changing your name

If the name you are currently using is different from the name on your most recent U.S. passport, you must provide a  certified copy of the legal name change  document. Examples include:

• Marriage certificate
• Divorce decree
• Court-ordered name change document

Your name change document will be returned to you in a separate mailing from your new passport.

Tips for renewing from Canada :

• If your Canadian divorce decree does not specify a spouse is returning to their maiden name, you must provide proof of your birth or maiden name (such as an original or certified copy of your birth certificate).

You must provide one photo with your application. Go to our  Passport Photo page  for photo requirements and to see examples of photos. You can get a photo at:

• Some  passport acceptance facilities
• A company which offers photo services
• Home. Ask a friend or family member to take your photo. Print it on glossy or matte photo quality paper. 

 Stapling your photo to the application:

• Use four staples vertically in the corners as close to the outer edges as possible. See example below.
• Do not bend the photo.

Pay using a personal check or money order and make it payable to the U.S. Department of State. Do not send cash.

• Add $60 to your application fee if you want  expedited service .
• Add $19.53 to your application fee if you want us to ship your completed passport in 1-2 days after we issue it.  
• Go to our  Passport Fees  page to learn more about how much it costs to apply for a passport and how you can pay.
• Please print the full name and date of birth of the applicant on the front of the check* or money order.
• Renewing from Canada? Personal checks or money orders must draw on U.S. financial institutions based in the United States and be payable in U.S. dollars. Acceptable U.S. checks and money orders must have a 9-digit routing number. Do not include 1-2 day or express delivery fees with your payment. These services are not available to U.S. residents in Canada.

*How to fill out your check 

Submit completed application and documents

Get My Passport Fast :  If you are traveling in less than 3 weeks, make an appointment to renew in person at a passport agency or center.

If you are traveling in more than 3 weeks, mail your completed application and documents to one of the addresses below. 

Where you mail the application depends on where you live, and how quickly you want us to process your passport. 

If you live in the  United States ,  use the United States Postal Service (USPS)  to mail your renewal application and supporting documents. If you live in  Canada , use Canada Post. 

Where to Send My Application and Supporting Documents

Want Faster Delivery?

• Delivering application to us : Pay for Priority Mail Express for faster shipping. The price for this service varies depending on the area of the country.
• Returning the passport to you : Pay $19.53 for 1-2 day delivery. This means you will receive your passport   1-2 days after we send it. Include this fee with your check or money order payable to the U.S. Department of State. Do not submit a return envelope to us with postage pre-paid. 

You may receive your passport and supporting documents in separate mailings.

If you are renewing a passport card, we will send it to you via First Class Mail. We do not use 1-2 day delivery services for passport card only applications.

Outside the United States (any country besides Canada):  Contact your  U.S. embassy and consulate .

Track your application status

You can  subscribe to email updates  about your application status, and  learn more about each status update .

It may take 2 weeks from the day you apply until your application status is “In Process.” 

Can I renew at an acceptance facility?

No. If you are renewing your passport with Form DS-82, acceptance facilities will not take your application. Acceptance facilities should never charge you a $35 fee for renewing your passport. These locations should only charge you a $35 fee if you are applying using Form DS-11.

You must mail in your renewal application (Form DS-82) yourself. Mailing your Form DS-82 can be confusing since some post offices are also passport acceptance facilities. However, postal employees should not review your Form DS-82 renewal application and supporting documents before you mail it. We recommend you ask USPS to send your Form DS-82 and supporting documents using a trackable delivery method. Do not use UPS, FedEx, or DHL since the address you need to send your Form DS-82 and supporting documents to is a Post Office (PO) Box. 

What is normal "wear and tear" of a passport?

Normal "wear and tear" of a U.S. passport is expected and does not count as "damage." Normal wear includes the bend of a passport after being carried in your back pocket or fanning of the visa pages after extensive opening and closing.

If your passport has been significantly damaged, especially the book cover or the page displaying your personal data and photo, you cannot renew it and must apply for a new passport. Damage that might require you to apply in person for a new passport includes water damage, a significant tear, unofficial markings on the data page, missing visa pages (torn out), a hole punch, or other injuries.

If I already have a passport book or card, can I use the DS-82 to get the other document?

If you have a passport book  and you are eligible to use Form DS-82, you may apply for a passport card as a renewal by mail even if it is your first  passport card .

If you have a passport card and you are eligible to use Form DS-82, you may apply for a passport book as a renewal by mail even if it is your first passport book. 

Can I renew my passport if it's still valid?

Yes. Your passport does not have to be expired for you to renew it. 

We recommend renewing your passport well ahead of planned international travel, even if it still has a few months validity left on it. Some countries require that your passport be valid at least six months beyond the dates of your trip. Learn more about your  destination's entry requirements .

I got a letter requesting that I resubmit my Form DS-82. What should I do?

When you renew by mail, our intake facility will review your application and supporting documents before an agency or center begins processing it.

The intake facility will send you a letter if you did not complete the application or provide all supporting documents. The letter may include a QR code with a link to our website. Common reasons for getting this letter include:

• No signature or date on your form
• Bad or missing photo
• Pages of your form are missing
• Wrong or missing fees
• Most recent passport is missing
• Most recent passport issued over 15 years ago

Follow the instructions in the letter. You must include the letter we sent you when you resubmit the new application. 

When your application is at the intake facility, your application status will show as "Not Available" if you check our Online Passport Status System. Your application will be "In Process" once a passport agency or center begins processing your new application. 

Can I renew my passport if it's expired?

Yes, but the passport must have been issued within the last 15 years.

In addition, you must have the passport in your possession, it cannot be damaged, you must have been age 16 or older when the passport was issued, and it must have been issued in your current name or you must show legal proof of your name change.

Can I send multiple renewal applications in one envelope?

Yes. If your family member or spouse is also renewing a passport, you may want to send multiple applications in the same envelope. You can pay for the applications using one check or money order. Make sure to add up the correct fees for multiple applications. 

How will you send my passport and supporting documents?

You will get multiple mailings. The number of mailings depends on what document(s) you asked for.

Passport Book : You may get your new passport and citizenship documents in two mailings. You may wait 8 weeks after getting your passport before you get a second mailing with your citizenship documents. We will return the passport book using a trackable delivery service.

Passport Card : You may get your new passport card and your citizenship documents in two mailings. You may wait 8 weeks after getting your passport before you get a second mailing with your citizenship documents. We only send the passport card via First Class Mail. We do not send cards using 1-2 day delivery services.

Both a Passport Book and Card : You may get three separate mailings:

• New passport book
• New passport card
• Citizenship documents

Contacting Us : If you have been waiting more than 8 weeks for your citizenship documents, call us at  1-877-487-2778 .

I live in Canada : If you live in Canada, send the renewal application to us via Canada Post. We will return your passport and supporting documents to you via USPS First Class Mail. One-to-two day and express delivery service is not available if you live in Canada.

Processing Times

Routine:  6-8 weeks*

Expedited: 2-3 weeks and an extra $60*

*Consider the total time it will take to get a passport when you are booking travel.  Processing times only include the time your application is at a passport agency or center.

• It may take up to 2 weeks for applications to arrive at a passport agency or center. It may take up to 2 weeks for you to receive a completed passport after we print it. 
• Processing times + mailing times = total time to get a passport

Urgent Travel:  See our Get my Passport Fast page. 

External Link

You are about to leave travel.state.gov for an external website that is not maintained by the U.S. Department of State.

Links to external websites are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of State of the views or products contained therein. If you wish to remain on travel.state.gov, click the "cancel" message.

You are about to visit:

Please note that creating presentations is not supported in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7. We recommend upgrading to the latest Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Firefox. If you are using IE 8 or later, make sure you turn off "Compatibility View".

We’re sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments. Exception: request blocked

Blinken will be the latest top US official to visit China in a bid to keep ties on an even keel

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this coming week as Washington and Beijing try to keep ties on an even keel despite major differences on issues from the path to peace in the Middle East to the supply of synthetic opioids that have heightened fears over global stability.

The rivals are at odds on numerous fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Taiwan and the South China Sea , North Korea, Hong Kong, human rights and the detention of American citizens. The United States and China also are battling over trade and commerce issues, with President Joe Biden announcing new tariffs on imports of Chinese steel this past week.

The State Department said Saturday that Blinken, on his second visit to China in less than a year , will travel to Shanghai and Beijing starting Wednesday for three days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Talks between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected, although neither side will confirm such a meeting is happening until shortly before it takes place.

The department said in a statement that Blinken would “discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,” including the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

He will also talk about progress made in “resuming counternarcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence, and strengthening people-to-people ties” and will reaffirm how important it is for the U.S. and China to be “responsibly managing competition, even in areas where our two countries disagree,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The trip follows a phone call this month between Biden and Xi in which they pledged to keep high-level contacts open, something they had agreed to last year at a face-to-face summit in California. Since that call, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has visited China and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken by phone with his Chinese counterpart . Meetings at lower levels also have taken place.

Despite those encounters, relations are rocky. The U.S. has recently become more vocal in its calls for China to stop supporting Russia’s military-industrial sector, which Washington says has allowed Moscow to boost weapons production to support the war against Ukraine .

“We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade,” Blinken said Friday. “Now, if China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”

Blinken also has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East . He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart several times since the Israel-Hamas war began six months ago as he has sought China’s help in getting Iran to restrain proxy groups it has supported, armed and funded in the region.

That topic has taken on new urgency since direct back-and-forth attacks by Iran and Israel on each other’s soil in the past week.

Also high on the agenda for Blinken will be Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily ramped up military support and sales for Taipei, much to the anger of Chinese officials.

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas. In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate activities by others in the waterway, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.

That was a major topic of concern earlier this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

• Department History
• Presidential and Secretaries Travels Abroad

We’re sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments. Exception: request blocked

Vatican at a Glance

A trip to moscow for pope francis.

Cardinal Parolin’s official schedule for the trip has not been released yet. It seems certain that the Cardinal will meet both President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

A papal trip to Moscow is a longtime dream. It dates back to 1990s, when – after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbaciov’s visit to the Vatican – Pope St. John Paul II hoped that, with a trip to Moscow, he could finally certify his concept of a Europe breathing with two lungs .

That longtime dream trip was never realized. Joaquin Navarro Valls, then Director of the Holy See Press Office, once said that the trip was “an open door as long as it is not closed.” It has been so until now.

The trip was not impeded by political issues. The Pope had been invited to Moscow several times. The first invitation came from Gorbaciov during his visit to the Vatican on December 1, 1989. Gorbaciov’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, invited the Pope when he first met him on December 20, 1991, and after his second visit in February 1998. However, at the end of this last meeting, a spokesperson from the Kremlin underscored that a papal visit to Moscow could only take place after a “careful preparation” and a settlement in Catholic – Russian Orthodox relations.

The issue behind the scenes was that of the “Uniates”, which, in Russian Orthodox  parlance, refers to the Catholics of the Byzantine Rite from western Ukraine, whose church properties had been given to the Orthodox Church after Stalin declared the former outlaws .

This issue still weighs on Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations, especially now that Ukraine is enduring an almost forgotten conflict . The issue burns so much that the Moscow Patriarchate has raised complaints over the Ukrainian situation many times. It even happened during the 2014 Synod of Bishops in Rome , when Metropolitan Hilarion addressed the issue in a speech delivered at the Synod, the main purpose of which was to discuss issues concerning the family.

Pope Francis is well aware of the issue. In an in-flight press conference, he emphasized , “if I were to go to Moscow, I should also go to Ukraine.”

However, the Holy See’s relations with the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate certainly have strengthened.

The first, historical meeting between a Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow took place on February 12, 2016 in Havana, Cuba. At the end of the meeting, the two delivered a joint declaration that the Pope hurried to describe as a “pastoral declaration,” in part, because it conceded a lot to the Moscow Patriarchate in diplomatic terms. For example, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was described as “Uniate”, a term taken from a document from the 1990s , the Balamand declaration. The use of the terms “uniates” created some bitterness in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Out of that meeting, the very peculiar “diplomacy of the relics” was born : following on Patriarch Kirill’s request, a small piece of St. Nicholas’s relics safely kept in Bari left the Italian city and traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, to be venerated by Russian faithful according to a devotion that dates back to the times of the undivided Church.

This “ecumenism of people” that goes beyond the still open theological issues will be one of the issues at the center of the meeting between Cardinal Parolin and Patriarch Kirill.

The Moscow Patriarchate pursues a pragmatic ecumenism, to be carried forward via an alliance between the Churches against secularization and in defense of persecuted Christians, as well as an alliance on life and family issues. However, other theological issues are still controversial. The theme of the next Catholic-Orthodox International mixed commission on theological dialogue  generated much discussion , as Moscow does not want to talk about the Church of the first millennium, because at that time the Moscow Patriarchate did not exist. The same Patriarchate suffers by being only the fifth in the sinaxis of the Orthodox Churches, though it is the largest in numbers .

Patriarch Kirill took steps toward the Catholic Church, thereby going against the most extremist part of the Orthodox world. The dialogue with the Holy See goes on, and the meeting with Cardinal Parolin will help to foster it.

Cardinal Parolin and Patriarch Kirill already met in Moscow on February 12, 2016, at the time of Pope Francis’s meeting in Cuba with the Patriarch. After the joint declaration, the wounds of the Greek Catholic Church were salved by Cardinal Parolin’s trip to Ukraine, by the Extraordinary Collection for the Ukraine which the Pope launched on Apr. 24, 2016 , and by the most recent Cardinal Leonardo Sandri’s, the Prefect of the Congregation of Eastern Churches, trip to Ukraine.

Cardinal Parolin met with President Putin twice: on November 25, 2013 and June 10, 2015, during the two visits by the head of the Kremlin to the Vatican. In both cases, the geopolitical situation was at the center of the talks, with a special focus on the Middle East and Ukraine.

Speaking to Il Regno , Parolin recalled that relations with Russia date back centuries. He also recalled that Czar Nicholas I paid a visit to Pope Gregory XVI in 1845, and this led to a concordat signed for the Holy See by Pope Pius IX.

The meeting between Parolin and Kirill will fall on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic ties between the Holy See and the Russian Federation. Full diplomatic ties were announced on December 3, 2009 , after the meeting between the then president Dimitri Medvedev and Pope Benedict XVI.

The turning point in relations between the Holy See and Russia was the meeting between Gorbaciov and John Paul II that took place three weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After that meeting, a first agreement was made to re-establish the diplomatic relations that had been interrupted during the Soviet era.

However, as Cardinal Parolin averred, it is since the 14th century that the Rus’ of Moscow and the Holy See entertained relations . In 1472, Pope Paul II blessed the marriage between the Great Prince of Moscow, Ivan III, and the Byzantine princess, Sophia. The ambassadors of Popes Pius V and Gregory XIII regularly visited Moscow, and the Holy See also operated as a mediator in the Livonian War, that took place in 1582-1583 and involved Russia, Poland and Sweden (the mediation was undertaken by the Jesuit, Fr. Antonio Possevino).

Since the 16th century, Russian-Holy See relations were strong and intermittent at the same time. The Holy See and Russia established full diplomatic ties in 1816, though the Russian representatives in the Vatican did not have a Vatican counterpart in St. Petersburg. However, papal envoys were always sent to take part in the coronations of the emperors of Russia.

But following the visit of Czar Nicholas I and the subsequent signing of the concordat, relations came to an halt. As a consequence of the Polish Revolution, the concordat was rescinded, and diplomatic relations resumed only in 1894. The 1917 Russian Revolution changed everything: with no diplomatic relations, only unofficial contacts could take place.

In 1960 the Holy See restored regular contacts with the Soviet Union. In 1967, these contacts were brought to a “stable working level”, and the Soviet Foreign Affairs Minister, Andrei Gromyko, met many times with Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. In February 1971, Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, Secretary of the Council for the Church’s Public Affairs, traveled to Moscow to ratify the Holy See’s commitment to the Treaty for the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

During the 1980s, the era of perestroika led to the exchange of official representatives between the Vatican and Moscow. The Holy See’s first official representative to the USSR, and then to the Russian Federation, was Archbishop Francesco Colasuonno.

After Gorbaciov, President Yeltsin visited the Vatican in 1991 and 1997. President Putin visited the Vatican for the first time on June 5, 2000, and he returned on November 5, 2003. Between the 1990s and 2000s, Holy See-Russian relations fluctuated because of discussions over the Russian law on religious freedom, but also because of strained relations with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Putin visited the Vatican once again on March 13, 2007, and the Holy See Press Office release that followed underscored that both the Holy See and Russia are willing to further bilateral relations. In 2009 the bilateral relations were elevated to the level of full diplomatic relations.

Now that the dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church has reached an historic peak, Cardinal Parolin’s trip to Moscow can be considered an additional step in the dialogue. Besides promoting geopolitical relations – Archbishop Antonio Mennini, one of the most important of the Holy See’s past representatives to Moscow, is now working in the Secretariat of State – the aim is that of advancing the dialogue with the Moscow Patriarchate. Greeting St. Nicholas’s relics, Patriarch Kirill said that his meeting with the Pope “was not a unique chance.”

Everything is seemingly working together to foster the possibility of a papal trip to Moscow. Will this be the first concrete outcome of this new Vatican Ostpolitik?

Lascia un Commento Annulla risposta

L'indirizzo email non verrà pubblicato.

È possibile utilizzare questi tag ed attributi XHTML : <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

• Benedict XVI
• international affairs
• Italian Church
• Pope Francis
• religious freedom
• Vatican business
• Vatican finances

Get in touch

Mondayvatican, pope francis, a government yet to be decrypted.

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.