Americans may technically enjoy the right to free movement, but if they want to exercise their right to cross a border, they have to pay a membership fee.
Nearly half of Americans now say they’re living paycheck to paycheck. Under those circumstances, United States passports are expensive. A new one costs $165 including fees if you’re over the age of 16 ($135 if you’re younger).
If it were up to us, passports would be automatically issued for free to every citizen who files with the Internal Revenue Service on April 15 each year. Once you pay your taxes, you’ve paid the membership fee for living in the United States, and that should come with all the benefits of citizenship.
There’s no good reason that people should have to find extra cash to pay for basic paperwork that grants them full travel rights to and from the nation they are a part of.
Possessing a passport is also now a core method for satisfying REAL ID requirements, which are mandatory as of May 2025 to access federal facilities including airports. Now that passports have become foundational ID in a way they never have been before, no taxpaying citizen should have to pay a penny extra to get the essential documentation that validates their existence and freedoms.
Considering the barriers to obtaining passports that some Americans experience, now would be a great time for a wealthy benefactor to step up and provide a national grant-based relief fund to help low-income citizens obtain passports—documents that are increasingly being demanded before people may fully participate as citizens.
Some credit cards automatically reimburse the fee to apply for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, but no credit card can reverse the charge of applying for a passport because the State Department only accepts checks (personal, certified, cashier’s, traveler’s) or money orders for passport applications.
Anyone want to make sure we can all travel and vote with a passport in every pocket? The Warren Buffett Givin’ Back Passport Scholarship has a nice ring to it. So does the Oprah Winfrey You Get a Passport & You Get a Passport Fund. Whoever steps up can claim their own naming rights.
What is a I-912 Fee Waiver form for passports?
People searching online for ways to waive the U.S. passport application fee might run across the I-912, Request for Fee Waiver form (sometimes called the Request for Fee Waiver) and mistakenly believe they can use that form to pay for passport application charges.
But that form is from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and is intended for use with applications for that department’s various programs, like work permits or green cards. The I-912 form is used to request relief from citizenship-related fees—it can’t be used by citizens to waive passport issuance fees.
American passports are issued by a separate government entity, the U.S. State Department, which does not provide fee waivers for passports on the basis of income.
So what are some other ideas for reducing or eliminating the cost of a passport?
Passport card is much cheaper
When used domestically, U.S. passport cards are just as powerful for ID as passport booklets are, yet cards cost just $65 including fees to get for the first time ($50 for a minor).
Passport cards are the same size as a driver’s license and can be used at U.S. airport security checkpoints and anywhere else that requires a REAL ID, like cruise ports.
The downside of U.S. passport cards is that they don’t have as much power as passport booklets do. A passport card allows travel within the United States as well as from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda via land border crossings or sea ports of entry only. That excludes international flights.
Although you can use a U.S. passport card to get through airport security for a domestic flight, you can’t use the card to fly to another country.
You could use a passport card if you’re flying to an American cruise port and then taking a cruise that goes to the Caribbean or Canada, but you would not be able to use the card to fly to Canada or the Caribbean.
Still, a passport card satisfies the most rigorous domestic identification requirements for about $100 less than a passport—and the card is easier to carry.
Passport fee waivers for university students
Some colleges and universities offer to absorb the cost of passport applications for students who qualify. Those qualifications are usually income-based. Sometimes, the student must have upcoming plans to travel, too.
Each institution that offers this program has its own name for it, so you might have to poke around or make some calls before finding out if your college has something like this available. The University of California, Davis calls this a U.S. Passport Grant Program; Boston University calls it a Free Pass to a Passport Grant; Temple University dubs it a Passport Scholarship.
Expensing passport fees if you cross borders for work
It’s perhaps a citizenship red flag if you need to respond to expensive federal documentation demands by begging a wealthy person to help you out, but the method might work.
If your job requires you to travel internationally, then a passport is a work tool, and you might be able to claim the fee as an expense.
No-fee passports for official government work
Sometimes, military personnel and their families can apply for a Special Issuance Passport that grants the booklet without a fee. However, the rigorous qualifications mean that availability is pretty narrow, and these types of passports aren’t intended for personal travel.
The good news is that no matter how you obtain your passport, once you have it, it’ll be valid for an entire decade.
