Some new price increases...great

[dxh]

How many people know about this:
(CNN) -- Get ready to open your wallet a little wider to satisfy your travel bug: It is soon going to cost more to apply for a new U.S. passport or renew an old one -- a move criticized by the public and some lawmakers.
Starting next Tuesday, adults applying for their first passport book will have to pay $135 -- a 35 percent increase from the current $100 fee. (The cost of the wallet-size passport card, which Americans can use on certain trips closer to home, is rising from $45 to $55 for first-time applicants.)

Want to add more visa pages to your passport book? It's free now, but you will have to shell out $82 under the new fee schedule. The renewal fee for passport books will rise to $110 -- up from the current $75.

There's even a new fee if you'd like formally to renounce your U.S. citizenship -- it costs nothing now, but the price tag will be $450 starting Tuesday.<<<<WTF, crazy.

Fees for passport book and cards for children also are set to rise.

[Steez]

Wow.. That's a large increase.. I'm glad I have 8 years until I need to renew my passport.

[Frosted]

It's cost that in Britain for years. Imagine how much it costs for passports for the family.

[dxh]

It's cost that in Britain for years. Imagine how much it costs for passports for the family.

Yeah, they make it hard on the middle class.
I was really surprised at the new cost to renounce citizenship. Seems odd.
Vacation is a cruel joke to me. Just can't afford it.

[sgreger1]

Vacation? Lol, I got a GRIP of vacation days, several weeks actually, that I have not used. But I can barely afford to rent a room at the Motel 6 down the road let alone actually travel out of the country lol. And now charging you to renounce your citizenship? I can do nothing but laugh at all these new laws we are paying our lawmakers 400k a year to come up with.

[timholian]

Is it weird for me to feel as if you should have to give up everything you own and take nothing but the clothes on your back to renounce your citizenship?

I don't mind someone leaving if they don't like it here but it seems hypocritical to use that which you have acquired in this country to start anew in a different country.

*This may just be my American elitism showing.

[dxh]

Is it weird for me to feel as if you should have to give up everything you own and take nothing but the clothes on your back to renounce your citizenship?

I don't mind someone leaving if they don't like it here but it seems hypocritical to use that which you have acquired in this country to start anew in a different country.

*This may just be my American elitism showing.

I can understand that feeling, but I think that your private property is not tied to being an American. I agree that this country facilitated the acquisition of that property, but forcing someone to forfeit that property seems a little Un-American. I would rather them leave and just get it over with. I think having a punishment for leaving would just keep the idiots around longer. Maybe not. I get where you are coming from with that though.

[timholian]

I can understand that feeling, but I think that your private property is not tied to being an American. I agree that this country facilitated the acquisition of that property, but forcing someone to forfeit that property seems a little Un-American. I would rather them leave and just get it over with. I think having a punishment for leaving would just keep the idiots around longer. Maybe not. I get where you are coming from with that though.

See, I knew something had to be wrong with that line of thinking but whats more "Un-American" than leaving America? LOL You are right though, just get them the hell out as fast as possible.

[truthwolf1]

It costs more because Americans are making larger salaries then ever before. We are taking more international vacations like the Europeans and have more vacation days these days compared to the draconian structure of the past. A small increase seems very justified for our newly progressive workers right to relax in fantasy land.

[dxh]

It costs more because Americans are making larger salaries then ever before. We are taking more international vacations like the Europeans and have more vacation days these days compared to the draconian structure of the past. A small increase seems very justified for our newly progressive workers right to relax in fantasy land.

As I said above. Vacation is a cruel joke to me(middle class family). International vacation...in dreams maybe. I also don't think this increase is justified. Are we not paying enough taxes and fees already in America? I also think maybe you are being sarcastic? Either way. I don't think it is justified

[Frosted]

The cost of living for the working family is just ridiculous at the minute. If you've got a family you get hammered because you have to pay for absoloutely everything. We're paying 2,621.40 USD alone for childcare and get absoloutely no help from the state. How people with normal jobs like me are surviving I just don't know.

[truthwolf1]

As I said above. Vacation is a cruel joke to me(middle class family). International vacation...in dreams maybe. I also don't think this increase is justified. Are we not paying enough taxes and fees already in America? I also think maybe you are being sarcastic? Either way. I don't think it is justified

Fully sarcastic.
The new American company slogan is lean and mean! More with less! Vacations are for losers!

[dxh]

The cost of living for the working family is just ridiculous at the minute. If you've got a family you get hammered because you have to pay for absoloutely everything. We're paying 2,621.40 USD alone for childcare and get absoloutely no help from the state. How people with normal jobs like me are surviving I just don't know.

Right there with you.

[dxh]

Fully sarcastic.
The new American company slogan is lean and mean! More with less! Vacations are for losers!

I thought so

[Frosted]

Right there with you.

Forgot to add, but it's probably obvious that that's per month.