3 reasons people choose online passport photo services over booths

If you’ve been looking into obtaining photos for your passport or the passports of family members, you’re no doubt already quite familiar with the idea of a passport-friendly photo booth. Despite the convenience of such installations, savvy travelers are increasingly leaning upon the benefits of online passport photo services, which allow for self-taken pictures to be assessed and adjusted to meet all relevant standards. Here are a few of the reasons why:

1. Tricky photos

Some photos are simply too finicky to take reliably in a photo booth in a public area. This is especially true if you’re trying to take photos with special considerations for faith, a medical condition, or if you’re taking photos of children or babies. As a child isn’t allowed to have anyone else in the photo, can’t be making too much of an expression, needs to be lined up properly, and can’t have a pacifier, toy, or anything else in place, this is one of the leading reasons for people to prefer online passport photo services. For all of these cases, it’s far easier to take the photo at home, when a good opportunity arises.

2. Reliability

If you take a photo at a booth and submit it, you won’t know of any problems until you receive your rejection. By using a photo service to adjust and submit your photos, you get an extra level of reliability. That means it’s far less likely you’ll find yourself needing to cancel a holiday trip or a cruise due to a surprise passport failure. For many people, this extra safety check is all the reason they need.

3. Convenience

Of course, you don’t need to have any serious reasons to take passport photos at home and use an online service; if it sounds more convenient, that’s because it is. Don’t think an online service is a tool only for emergencies. Plenty of people choose to skip the booth simply because they don’t want to go through the hassle of having to find one. It’s that simple.

If you want to ensure your passport pictures make the grade, then why not use Paspic like lots of other savvy travelers?

Congrats on getting married, now go update your passport!

The color scheme was perfect, everyone loved the food, and even the bridesmaids liked their dresses! All in all, your wedding was pretty much everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Now all you have to do is grab your luggage, head to the airport and get to your tropical hideaway for the best week of your life – the honeymoon. Now since your driver’s license and other forms of ID are still in your maiden name, your passport that still identifies you under your maiden name will be just fine for the honeymoon, but every international foray you embark on after that, you’ve got some work to do.

First of all, any time you have legally gone through a name change for reasons like marriage, divorce, or a court ordered name change, you have to go through the process of getting a new passport. Depending on how long it has been since your existing passport was issued, the cost to do so will vary. If your existing passport is less than a year old, you’re in luck: no passport processing fees are required. If it’s been more than a year, you might be eligible to use Form DS-82.

What is Form DS-82?

The ‘DS’ in Form DS-82 stands for Department of State, the government department that oversees United States citizen international travel and overall diplomacy. Not everyone is eligible to use Form DS-82, the form can only be used if the following criteria can be met:

• You are able to produce your most recent passport
• You were 16 years of age or older when you were issued your most recent passport
• Your most recent passport is less than 15 years old
• Your most recent passport was not physically damaged
• You use the same name as the name on your most recent passport, OR you have changed your legal name by marriage or court order, AND can produce proper original documentation to support the name change

If you are not eligible to use Form DS-82, the process of obtaining a new passport is much more tedious. The first step is to submit Form DS-11 in person at an applicable U.S. Passport facility. In addition to Form DS-11, you must provide:

• Evidence of United States citizenship
• An certified or original name change document
• Valid identification document
• A color passport photo

Who ever knew that getting married was so much work?!