What Do You Need to Get a Passport? Full Checklist 2026

The Master Checklist Table

Start here and work down. Every row is one thing the acceptance agent will ask for, who it applies to, whether the original or a photocopy is required, and the mistake that most often kills an appointment.

With the table as your map, the sections below explain each row in full: what qualifies, what does not, and exactly what to put in the envelope. Read only the sections that match your situation, but read the photocopy section no matter who you are, since copy errors delay more applications than any other single cause.

Proof of US Citizenship

Citizenship evidence is the document the whole application stands on, and the State Department divides it into primary evidence, which proves the claim by itself, and secondary evidence, which proves it only in combination. When you apply in person on Form DS-11, you must submit primary evidence if you have it. Only when primary evidence is genuinely unavailable do you move to the secondary-evidence ladder, and every rung of that ladder takes longer to adjudicate, so recovering or replacing a primary document is almost always worth the effort before you apply.

Primary evidence for people born in the United States means a qualifying US birth certificate: issued by the city, county, or state of birth, showing your full name, date and place of birth, your parents' full names, the registrar's signature, and the seal of the issuing office. The decorative certificate handed out by the hospital is not a legal document and is routinely the reason first-time applications fail at the counter, so check for the government seal before you leave home. A full-validity, undamaged prior US passport also counts as primary evidence, which is why renewals are simpler than first-time applications. For people born abroad, the equivalents are the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, the Certificate of Naturalization, or the Certificate of Citizenship, covered in their own sections below.

When no primary evidence exists, the secondary ladder has three main rungs. A delayed birth certificate, meaning one filed more than a year after the birth, works only if it lists the birth attendant's signature or parental affidavit details, and otherwise must be paired with early public records. A Letter of No Record from the state registrar, certifying that no birth certificate is on file with your name and birth date, must always be paired with early public records. And Form DS-10, the birth affidavit, must be completed by someone with personal knowledge of your birth in the United States, submitted in person with Form DS-11, and likewise paired with early public records. Early public records means documents created within the first five years of your life showing your name, birth date, and birthplace: baptismal certificates, hospital birth records, census records, school records, and family Bible entries are the classic examples. You cannot submit digital-only evidence such as an electronic birth certificate on a phone; the physical document plus a photocopy is required.

Proof of Identity

Identity evidence answers a different question from citizenship evidence: not whether you are American, but whether you are the person named in the application. The standard primary IDs are a valid driver's license, a military ID, a federal or state government employee ID, or a valid foreign passport. The ID should be readily recognizable, current or recently expired depending on the document, and presented as the physical card, not a photograph of it. Bring it plus a photocopy of the front and back, because the copy is part of the file and a missing copy holds up processing just as surely as a missing original.

Children are the special case the table already flagged. Young children typically have no photo ID of their own, so a parent's ID establishes the chain: the child's birth certificate names the parent, and the parent's ID proves the parent is who the certificate names. Teenagers aged 16 and 17 should present whatever ID they hold, such as a learner's permit or school ID alongside the parent's ID, and the acceptance agent has discretion over combinations for applicants with thin ID histories. If your ID situation is unusual, such as a recently changed name with mismatched documents, bring every supporting document you have rather than hoping one will suffice; surplus paper never delays an application, but missing paper always does.

The Passport Photo

One compliant 2-by-2-inch color photo, taken within the last six months, goes with every application, and the photo is the single most rejected item in the entire process. Rather than repeat the full specification here, use our dedicated resources: the passport photo size requirements page states the exact dimensions and composition rules, how to take your own passport photo walks through the DIY route, and our free photo sheet maker formats your image for cheap printing. Any retail photo you buy, from a post office counter to a pharmacy kiosk, must meet those same acceptance criteria.

Two photo rules deserve emphasis because they end appointments. First, eyeglasses must come off: the State Department's no-glasses rule has applied since 2016, and drugstore photos taken with glasses on are rejected on sight. Second, the photo must reflect your current appearance and be no older than six months, so reusing the spare from your last renewal is a gamble that fails whenever your appearance has changed. For babies and toddlers, the same 2-by-2 size applies; lay the infant on a plain white sheet and photograph from above with no shadows, hands, or other people in the frame.

Which Form: DS-11, DS-82, or DS-5504

Picking the wrong form wastes more time than any other paperwork error because each form travels a different channel. Form DS-11, the application for a US passport, is the in-person form: first-time adults, all children under 16, applicants replacing lost, stolen, or damaged passports, and anyone who fails renewal eligibility all use DS-11 at an acceptance facility or agency. It must be completed, printed single-sided, and left unsigned until the agent witnesses your signature. Our DS-11 walkthrough covers the in-person visit end to end.

Form DS-82 is the mail-renewal form for eligible adults: your prior passport must be undamaged, must have been issued when you were 16 or older, must have been issued within the last 15 years, and must show your current name or be accompanied by the legal name-change document. Meet every condition and you renew by mail or online with no appointment and no execution fee; fail any one of them and you are back on the DS-11 track. The full eligibility test and both renewal routes are in our renewal guide.

Form DS-5504 is the correction form, and it has the tightest window in the system: within one year of your passport's issuance, it reissues the book to fix a printing or data error or to reflect a name change, with no new application fee. You pay only if you choose expedited processing or fast delivery. After the year expires, the same fixes require a full new application at full cost. One naming trap to avoid: Form DS-5507 sounds like an application form but is not one. It is the affidavit of physical presence, parentage, and support completed by a US-citizen parent when adjudicating a birth-abroad citizenship claim, and it appears in the born-abroad section below, never in a domestic application packet.

Minors Under 16

A child's application has three extra ingredients beyond the adult packet: relationship evidence, two-parent consent, and everyone's physical presence. Both parents or guardians must generally appear in person with the child, each presenting photo ID, and the child's birth certificate or adoption decree proves the relationship linking them. The child must be present too, since the agent verifies identity against the living applicant, not just the paper. Child passports are valid for five years, cannot be renewed by mail, and always travel the DS-11 track with its $35 execution fee, as detailed in our passports for minors guide.

When one parent cannot attend, the absent parent completes Form DS-3053, the Statement of Consent, has it notarized, and sends the original with the applying parent along with a photocopy of the front and back of the ID shown to the notary. Three details decide whether the consent works: it must be the original notarized form, since photocopies of the DS-3053 are not accepted; it must be recent, signed within the last 90 days rather than months in advance; and the accompanying ID copy must be complete front and back. Sole-authority situations, such as a court order granting sole custody, a judicial declaration of incompetence of the other parent, or a death certificate, replace the second consent with the corresponding court or vital record plus a copy. Never assume one parent's signature suffices without either the second consent or the legal document explaining its absence; that assumption is the most common reason child applications stall.

Applicants Aged 16 and 17

Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds sit between the child and adult rules. They apply in person with Form DS-11 and pay the full adult fee schedule, and a passport issued at 16 or older is valid for the full ten years. The parental requirement softens from consent to awareness: at least one parent or guardian should ideally appear with the teen and co-sign to demonstrate awareness of the application. If no parent can attend, the teen brings a signed, notarized statement from a parent consenting to the issuance plus a photocopy of that parent's ID. The teen's own ID, citizenship evidence, photo, photocopies, and fees follow the adult pattern, so the only genuinely extra item is the parental-awareness piece.

Born Abroad to US Parents

Americans born outside the United States prove citizenship through a different paper trail. The anchor document is the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, the official record created when the birth was registered with a US embassy or consulate, and it serves as primary citizenship evidence for the passport application. Alongside it, bring the US-citizen parent's evidence of citizenship and, where the claim requires it, a statement detailing the parent's periods of residence or physical presence in the United States before the birth, since transmission of citizenship depends on the parent's own ties. Our citizenship by birth abroad guide works through the transmission rules in full.

If no Consular Report was ever issued, the application becomes a citizenship claim assembled from parts: the parent's citizenship evidence, secondary evidence of the birth and parentage, and frequently Form DS-5507, the affidavit of physical presence or residence, parentage, and support, completed by the US-citizen parent and signed before a consular officer or notary. This is the form whose number resembles an application form but whose job is purely evidentiary. These cases take longer and benefit from professional review before filing, since a weak claim filed cold can take months to develop through correspondence.

Naturalized Citizens

Naturalized citizens use the Certificate of Naturalization as primary citizenship evidence for a first passport, submitting the original plus the front-and-back photocopy like any other citizenship document. Two cautions apply. First, the certificate is an expensive document to replace if lost, so the photocopy habit matters doubly here; keep a copy somewhere separate from the original from the day it arrives. Second, the name on the certificate controls: if you changed your name during the naturalization ceremony, the certificate already shows the new name and no extra document is needed, but any later change needs the legal paperwork described in the next section. Derivative citizens, who derived citizenship automatically through a parent's naturalization while under 18, use the Certificate of Citizenship or the parent's naturalization certificate plus proof of the parent-child relationship and qualifying residence, paralleling the born-abroad pattern.

Name Changes and Different Names

Whenever the name you use differs from the name on your citizenship evidence, you must supply the legal bridge between them. A marriage certificate, divorce decree specifying the restored name, or court-ordered name change, original plus photocopy, is what the file needs; an explanation without a document is not evidence. Timing then decides the form, as our name change guide details: within one year of the passport's issuance, Form DS-5504 corrects the book with no new application fee, while older changes ride the normal renewal or first-time track with the supporting document enclosed. Check the one-year clock from the issuance date printed in the book, not from the date of the marriage or court order, since applicants routinely misread which anniversary matters.

Lost Citizenship Evidence and File Search

Losing the underlying citizenship document is recoverable, but the recovery path depends on what once existed. If you previously held a US passport or Consular Report of Birth Abroad and simply cannot produce it now, request a file search: submit Form DS-11 with a written request asking the Department to locate your record, and include the $150 file search fee. This covers the Department searching its own issuance records; it does not cover locating a birth certificate held by a state office. If your passport itself was lost or stolen rather than merely expired, read our lost passport replacement guide alongside this section, since the replacement filing has its own statement requirements.

If no prior federal record exists to search, rebuild from the state level upward. Order a replacement birth certificate from the city, county, or state vital-records office of your birthplace; this is the fastest route back to primary evidence and usually takes weeks, not months. Only when the state has nothing on file do you descend to the secondary ladder: the registrar's Letter of No Record plus early public records from the first five years of life, a qualifying delayed birth certificate with supporting records, or Form DS-10 with early public records. File whichever secondary package you can assemble most completely, since a thin secondary filing invites months of correspondence while a thick one can sail through.

Photocopy Requirements

The copy rules are short, exact, and enforced: photocopy the front and back of your citizenship evidence and the front and back of your photo ID onto plain white 8.5-by-11-inch paper, single-sided, legible, and complete. Backs matter even when they look blank, because seals, endorsements, and annotations live there; copying only the fronts is one of the most common technical defects in mailed applications. The copies travel inside the same envelope as the originals, and including them measurably speeds processing since the file can be worked without handling the originals at every step. Double-sided copies, shrunken-to-fit copies, and phone photos of documents all fail the requirement. Make a second full set for yourself before sealing the envelope, and keep it until the originals come back, since the Department returns citizenship originals in a separate mailing from the new passport and the two arrive days apart.

Fees close out the packet, and the money rules live in our passport fees guide: DS-11 applicants split payment into the State Department check or money order plus the separate $35 facility payment, while DS-82 renewals send a single payment. Before sealing anything, run the validity math on your current document with our passport validity checker if expiry timing is tight, confirm your destination's entry rules with our visa eligibility checker, and keep our emergency passport guide bookmarked in case travel moves up while the application is pending.

Frequently Asked Questions