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The US State Department has overcharged millions of Americans over two decades with a $60 fee to fast-track passport applications, according to a new lawsuit in California federal court.
An Oakland resident on Friday said the State Department's fee for an expedited two-to-three-week turnaround was unjustified. Routine processing takes four to six weeks.
Applicants already pay $100 or more for new passports or renewals. The lawsuit asked the court to declare the $60 fee excessive and order the “return or refund of all expedited passport processing fees unlawfully and arbitrarily charged".
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The number of US passports issued annually rose from 13.5 million in 2013 to more than 24 million last year, according to State Department statistics.
The State Department did not charge for expedited processing before 1994 if an applicant could show urgent travel needs, the lawsuit said. It raised the price for the service from $35 to $60 in 2002.
Federal law allows the department, which oversees US passport requests, to charge for expedited processing for passports to cover the cost of the service. But the $60 charge is unreasonable, according to the complaint.
“The State Department has never provided a sufficient justification for setting the expedited passport processing fee at $60,” the lawsuit said.
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