Can I get a refund if I cancel my passport software?
Pricey Travel TROUBLESHOOTER: I shed my passport not too long ago. I sent an application for a passport renewal to the U.S. Department of Condition and compensated $116. Yesterday, I obtained a letter again stating that I now experienced a passport (which I found in the meantime) but that they have previously cashed my check.
When I contacted their workplace, a representative informed me they would refund the income. Now they are declaring they won’t refund me. How can they retain my revenue if I didn’t want to renew?
— Wendy Taylor, Park Ridge, Illinois
Reply: When you lose your passport, you have to report it as lost or stolen to the Point out Department. You simply cannot just implement for a new a person.
When you do that, the Point out Department checks to see if you have an energetic passport. If you do, it sends your software back again. But the govt also cashes your check and gets to preserve your dollars.
Why? In accordance to Title 22 of the Code of Federal Rules 51.51 and 51.55, passport execution charges are nonrefundable. It doesn’t make a difference what an official representative informed you the Condition Office is likely to continue to keep your income.
But anything about your scenario wasn’t suitable. No, it’s not that the govt can take your revenue and give you very little in return (I pay my taxes, so I know what that feels like). It is that an individual explained to you that you could get a refund but was improper.
I run into this problem all the time. Vacation organizations and govt organizations hope consumers to have read every single deal and regulation, which is unreasonable. I checked the Point out Office site, and I can see how you could consider you can buy up a new passport and that the govt would mechanically invalidate your previous a person. However, that’s not how it performs. The load should really be on the State Office to evidently state the have to have to very first report your passport as dropped or stolen prior to making use of for a alternative.
Nonetheless, if you want to be an knowledgeable consumer, you must read the great print carefully. Which is in particular true when you are dealing with a significant paperwork like the federal governing administration. Leave nothing to chance. You rushed as a result of the approach of implementing for a alternative passport before making certain that your passport was without a doubt misplaced.
I checked with the State Office. I’m worried you won’t be finding a refund. But the Point out Division did the next greatest factor, extending your passport by 3 decades. It is not the remedy you preferred, but at minimum you’ll get a little something for your cash. My tips? Maintain that passport in a safe and sound position.
