Returning to the United States on an Expired U.S. Passport
If you are overseas and your passport expired on or after January 1, 2020, you may be able to use your expired passport to return directly to the United States only, until December 31, 2021.
You qualify for this exception if all the following are true:
- You are a U.S. citizen.
- You are currently abroad seeking direct return to the United States.
- You are flying directly to the United States, a United States territory, or have only short-term transit (“connecting flights”) through a foreign country on your direct return to the United States or to a United States Territory.
- Your expired passport was originally valid for 10 years. Or, if you were 15 years of age or younger when the passport was issued, your expired passport was valid for 5 years.
- Your expired passport is undamaged.
- Your expired passport is unaltered.
- Your expired passport is in your possession.
You do not qualify for this exception if:
- You wish to depart from the United States to an international destination. This includes round trip travel from Uruguay to the United States without sufficient time in the United States to renew your expired passport.
- You are currently abroad seeking to travel to a foreign country for any length of stay longer than an airport connection in route to the United States or to a United States territory.
- Your expired passport was limited in validity.
- Your expired passport is a special issuance passport (such as a diplomatic, official, service, or no-fee regular passport).
- Your expired passport is damaged.
- Your expired passport is altered.
- Your expired passport is not in your possession.
Please be advised that currently, routine passport processing in the United States can take 10-12 weeks. If you need a passport in less than 10-12 weeks due to international travel plans, you can pay an additional $60 fee to expedite your passport, which will shorten the processing time to 4-6 weeks. The $60 fee to expedite your passport is only available in the United States, there is no expedite fee payable when applying for a U.S. passport at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo.
If your U.S. passport expired on or before December 31, 2019, please see our Passport Services page for information on how to renew your passport before traveling.
If your planned travel to the United States is round trip and you do not plan to renew your U.S. passport while in the United States or you are traveling to a third country, please see our Passport Services page for information on how to renew your passport before traveling.
U.S. citizen travelers cannot travel to Uruguay using an expired U.S. passport.
