Where are you seeing the ability to do it online? You can't as far as I can tell (I just did it).
> "Currently, the process requires filling out a renewal application called DS-82, providing a passport-sized photo, and calculating fees, plus tossing the current passport and potentially other identification papers in the mail. “It’s scary to mail in your [old] passport, marriage certificate, and other documents and hope you’ll get them back,” Rathner says."
You need to print the forms, staple a proper photo to them, and mail all your crap via USPS. The only thing you can do online is print the form (you can fill in the data first, but that's not the hard part).
When I hear "you can already do everything online" I think click submit and be done. You can't currently do that. It's barely a step above picking up the forms at USPS (where you have to go anyway).
There was a beta website that let you do the most straightfoward sorts of renewals online (renewing a "normal" passport and having it shipped to the US).
Yeah that's what the article mentions, but sounds like that's not available to most of the public (and the comment I replied to seemed to not be talking about that?)
It has you fill out the forms electronically, but all that does is put the text into the field which you then have to print, staple your photo to, and mail.
> "Currently, the process requires filling out a renewal application called DS-82, providing a passport-sized photo, and calculating fees, plus tossing the current passport and potentially other identification papers in the mail. “It’s scary to mail in your [old] passport, marriage certificate, and other documents and hope you’ll get them back,” Rathner says."
You need to print the forms, staple a proper photo to them, and mail all your crap via USPS. The only thing you can do online is print the form (you can fill in the data first, but that's not the hard part).
When I hear "you can already do everything online" I think click submit and be done. You can't currently do that. It's barely a step above picking up the forms at USPS (where you have to go anyway).