If you've read about the positive experience of my colleague Sean Hollister, who renewed his U.S. passport online through a State Department beta website—without having to mail in his old passport—I have good news for you: This opportunity is now available to everyone. You can access it right here.
“Instead of printing out a paper application and mailing it with a check, Americans can now renew their passports through a secure process that saves time and effort,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in an announcement about the program.
Currently, the renewal website lists an estimated processing time of six to eight weeks, and the State Department points out that this estimate does not include mail transit times. All of this means that you may not get your renewed passport back in just a week, like Sean. (You also have to meet certain requirements to be able to renew your passport online.)
However, Blinken points out that the processing time for routine passports is on average “significantly less than” the stated time frame, so if you renew your passport through this website, you may still see a relatively quick processing time.