Passport Renewal Will Be Far Less Miserable in 2024
Travelers looking to plan international trips in the New Year got some good news this week: Passport renewal will no longer take months on end. Processing times for US passports have finally returned to what they were before the pandemic, according to an update from the State Department.
As of December 18, passport applications are now being processed within six to eight weeks for routine service, and as fast as two to three weeks for expedited processing, which costs an extra $60 fee. “With this update, we have fulfilled our commitment to return to benchmarks from March 2020,” the department’s release says. “This reflects the work of dedicated employees working for the American people.”
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Business Travel in 2024: ‘Rising Tension With Employees’
There’s already a tug-of-war between corporations that want their employees back in the office full-time, and workers who don’t want to give up working from home or as digital nomads.
Characterizing the issue in a dramatic fashion, SAP Concur predicts there will be plenty more conflict in 2024.
SAP Concur used stark words and phrases to describe what’s ahead: “Rising tension with employees,” “friction” and “strife.”
Budget cuts will lead to “business travel tension,” the company said in an announcement about 2024 predictions.
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Facial recognition to replace need to show passports at UK border
Passengers will not need to present their passports when arriving at the UK border in the future, according to a report by The Times.
Airports plan to install smart eGates equipped with advanced facial recognition as early as this year, meaning that passengers will be admitted to the UK simply by looking into a camera. Similar technology is already deployed in locations such as Dubai and Australia.
Phil Douglas, the director-general of Border Force, told The Times that he wants to create an “intelligent border” with “much more frictionless facial recognition than we currently do”.
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