At a Sept. 29 media event touting America.gov, a new catchall government portal for federal services, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that for the first time, Americans would soon be allowed to apply for passports online.
As avid travelers already know, Americans have already been able to renew passports fully online since 2022, but Rubio's announcement promised an expansion of that capability to include online handling of first-time applications for passports, too.
Currently, first-time passport applications must be handled by mail and in person at approved passport application locations, such as post offices.
Digital passport services were built in 2022
During his remarks, Rubio never mentioned that virtually the same system, currently restricted to passport renewals, already exists.
As a refresher, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order in 2021 tasking the federal government with building a system for online passport renewals.
Biden's order has been scrubbed from the White House website by the Trump administration, but the original URL remains: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/12/13/executive-order-on-transforming-federal-customer-experience-and-service-delivery-to-rebuild-trust-in-government/:
By mid-2022, the State Department's digital passport renewal system had been built and began sporadic testing.
To learn more about how the digital service works, Frommer's tried out the new system way back in late 2022.
By 2024, the digital system was fully operational and has served passport renewals ever since.
We absolutely love that system, and we love the idea that if these promises hold, first-time applicants will soon be liberated from having to wait in line at post offices and photo services to get booklets.
Frommer's asked the State Department if the back end of the incoming application system will be the same as what Americans have already been using for renewals. We have not received a reply.
From what we can tell from Rubio's presentation, which mimicked the large projections and conversational/promotional tone of an Apple product launch, the system will first route citizens to the login.gov account portal that facilitates personal identification for many federal services, just like the Biden-created system.
"Now the fun part, the photo," Rubio explained. "You can take a new one of them yourself on the phone. You probably can’t use those filters to make you look 50 years younger, but you can take a picture of yourself on the phone in the comfort of your own home, or you can upload one directly from your own device. ... And if you don’t like it—and as you probably know, many people don’t like it, so you’re going to take 150 of these. But eventually, you will like one. And you can retake it until it’s the perfect shot, the one you like."
That sounds exactly like the passport renewal application that Americans already have, only expanded to accept more types of applications.
"No printing forms, no drugstore hostage photo, no appointment, no line, no middleman that you’re paying to do something that should be available to you," Rubio said.
All of those details—plus the ability to track the progress of your application online—also sound exactly like what Americans have already been experiencing for several years with online passport renewals.
Incorrect media reports
It won't surprise you that plenty in the media got the situation totally wrong.
"President Trump’s new artificial intelligence website allows for Americans to apply for passports online," wrote The Hill. Contrary to that reporting, there was no explicit information announced at the event stating that artificial intelligence will be driving passport applications.
Spectrum News claimed the system would be ready by December 2026. Rubio did not provide a starting date for the expanded service, promising both "in 2028" and "by the end of 2027."
Rubio also announced that passport pages have been redesigned to add an image of an eagle in flight, which will appear to be animated when the inner pages are flipped rapidly. The government calls this addition Flight of the Eagle.
Rubio's full remarks, which can be read here or watched here, did not explicitly claim that the Trump administration built the passport system that will be used—although Rubio did imply that about the America.gov portal when he said, "the State Department is partnering with America.gov to rebuild the entire thing from the ground up."
So far, the State Department has not issued a press release about the passport changes in support of Rubio's public remarks.
But the functions of the application process, aside from cosmetic differences, do not seem to differ in any meaningful way from the system conceived and built by a 2021 initiative that has since been deleted from the public White House record.
Update, October 1, 2026: Frommer's asked the U.S. State Department if the back end of the new system had been created previously. A spokesperson who offered the information on background emailed Frommer's: "The new passport application system will be a new platform, distinct from the current online renewal system" and "the Department of State is partnering with America.gov to build this new passport application experience from the ground up."
