Packed your bags for a long holiday abroad? Ready to leave? Before you sign off, it would be wise to check if your passport has expired. If so, don't get tense. Just consider yourself lucky that the procedure of passport renewal has improved over the years and will not take much time.

Passport renewal is a service offered by the government of a country for its citizens who need to travel internationally and are not the first-time applicants of a passport. Passport renewal is basically the procedure of renewing or re-issuing a passport in case it has been lost, stolen or damaged. A passport is also renewed if the name of the applicant has changed and his current passport bears his old name.

The steps involved in the process of renewal include submitting a passport renewal application form and important documents like identification, birth certificate, citizenship proof and passport-size photos. Apart from this, the payment is also to be included with the forms submitted. Sometimes certain modifications or amendments have to be made in printed passports, for which submitting a passport renewing application is required.

Normally, the process of passport renewal does not take too long, 6 weeks on average. But in cases of emergency, the process can be sped up, reducing the time taken to one day.

Owing to security issues the method of passport renewal has been made more rigid and complex. This has been done by including digital photographs, biometric technology, and the most recent, e-passport. However, passport renewal is not an expensive service, and provides us with a gateway to the world outside our national borders.