Well, renewing my passport really. You can find all the information you need at the Department of State’s website. I misread the fees at first and thought that I would have to pay extra to get additional pages added to my new passport. Fortunately, if you are renewing they will give you the extra pages at no extra cost.
Why do you need extra pages?
Because some countries’ visa stamps are huge and if you’re traveling through a lot of countries you can run out of room quickly. Being prepared is better than trying to get pages added while you’re out and about. My passport expires next year, so it made sense to just renew. Julie’s doesn’t expire for several years so she’s just going to get new pages added.
As of June 2013 the cost for a US passport renewal is $110. Getting new pages added is $83. If you are applying for a first time passport there is a $25 “welcome to the club” fee.
It cost me $16 to get passport photos taken at Fedex/Kinkos. I know there are ways to take your own photos, but my printer is jacked up and by the time I fixed it and putzed around with finding a white wall, and cropping, etc. I decided that it was just better to cough up the $16 and get it out of the way. I just chalked it up to opportunity cost.
Since the printer is broken I’ll be printing my renewal form out at work and then heading to the post office to send it on its way. That will be one small but very important item off the to-do list.
Hey, you DID learn something from me after all! Look at you, throwing around economics terms! 🙂