The Most Common Mistakes To Avoid When Renewing A Passport, According To An Expert

A new review by a passport and visa assistance company pinpoints the most common types of mistakes made by prospective travelers in their passport renewal applications. Such mistakes can delay a passport by three or four additional weeks, the company says.

ItsEasy.com analyzed 9,100 adult renewal applications it received from January 1 to September 1, 2023, and 1,092 contained errors, according to David Alwadish, the company’s founder and CEO. The review confirmed a State Department statement that bad photos are the No. 1 reason applications are put on hold.

“People make errors on their applications for a multitude of reasons,” Alwadish says. “Errors can be simple clerical mistakes, such as typos. Some errors are caused because the applicants are confused about the specific process they are supposed to follow, or the supporting documents they provide unknowingly don’t meet government specifications.”

Applicants’ attention spans differ, and the State Department has four pages of instructions, Alwadish says. “People may look at these pages with their limited attention span and time available and may not read them fully.”

The review by ItsEasy.com found eight critical reasons why photos were noncompliant with State Department requirements:

• The head shot was too large or small.
• The photo was digitally altered or filtered.
• The photo was not taken within the past six months.
• The photo was poor quality.
• The person was not looking at the camera.
• The person had squinted or closed eyes.
• The person was wearing eyeglasses.
• The person wore a head covering (a note must accompany the application stating a covering is worn for religious reasons).

“Just because a store, pharmacy or facility sells passport photos does not mean their employee took a qualifying photo that meets the government’s standards,” Alwadish cautions.

Besides photo issues, the company’s review found seven other mistakes commonly made by passport applicants:

• Information on the application is different from the previous passport. Full name or date of birth is different, or applicant leaves out a middle name or changes the middle name to an initial.
• Problems with the check. The applicant’s check is an incorrect amount. The check must be clean without any crossing out and must say, “Payable to: the US Department of State.”
• Missing passport book and/or card. If someone has been issued a passport book and/or passport card and is requesting renewed versions of them, they each must be submitted with the application.
• Missing Social Security number or other information. Many applicants don’t enter an accurate or complete Social Security number. Others fail to sign or date their applications.
• Inconsistent signature. The State Department checks whether someone's signature is consistent with the signature on a previous passport.
• E-signed documents are not acceptable. For all passport-related forms, only a live ink signature will be accepted.
• Handwritten application forms. Handwritten forms can generate numerous typos or mistakes, delaying an application. The government passport agents must retype a handwritten application.