Americans applying for their very first passport may soon be able to skip the post office queue entirely. At a September 29 media event introducing America.gov, a new federal services portal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that first-time passport applications will move online — currently, new applicants must apply in person at approved locations like post offices.
What Rubio's presentation glossed over: a fully functional online passport system already exists. It was commissioned by a 2021 executive order signed by President Biden, tested from mid-2022, and has handled online passport renewals at scale since 2024. Millions of travellers have already renewed their passports from their sofa using it — no printing, no appointments, no awkward pharmacy photo booth.
The promised expansion would extend that same convenience to first-time applicants. Based on Rubio's walkthrough, the new process looks almost identical to the existing renewal system: you'd verify your identity through a login.gov account, then take your passport photo yourself on your phone — retakes allowed, filters not — and upload it directly. Application tracking would also be online. Frommer's asked the State Department whether the underlying system is the same one built for renewals, but got no answer. Notably, the Biden-era executive order behind the original system has been removed from the White House website, though the old link still works.
The announcement came with some fuzziness on timing. Rubio variously promised the expanded service "in 2028" and "by the end of 2027" — and no official State Department press release has followed. Some media outlets got details wrong, too: The Hill attributed the system to artificial intelligence (there's no evidence of that), and Spectrum News reported a December 2026 launch date that doesn't match anything Rubio actually said.
One tangible new thing was announced: passport inner pages have been redesigned with a flying eagle that appears animated when you flip the pages quickly. The government calls it "Flight of the Eagle."
Why it matters: a first passport is the gateway document for international travel, and the in-person requirement has long been the most painful part of getting one — appointments, queues, photo services, fees for middlemen. If the rollout delivers what was promised, getting your first passport could become as easy as renewing one already is. Just keep an eye on the timeline, which currently ranges from late 2027 to 2028 depending on which quote you believe. Until then, first-timers still need to apply the old-fashioned way.
Reporting by Frommer's.
