State Department Won’t Let You Add Pages to Your Passport Anymore

U.S. passport holders can no longer add more visa pages to their passports for security reasons, the State Department announced.

Currently, travelers who run out of pages for stamps in their passport can pay for a 24-page insert to be stitched in. But the State Department will stop offering the additional pages on Jan. 1, 2016, and anyone who runs out of space will have to purchase a separate 28- or 52-page passport, according to a press release.

Authorities made the decision to stop bulking up passports to “enhance the security of the passport and to abide by international passport standards,” the release said. William Cocks, Bureau of Consular Affairs spokesperson, told the Washington Post that as a passport grows in size, it is difficult to maintain the same security levels.

Last fall, the State Department began issuing 52-page passports to people around the world who requested the larger size, and travelers applying in the U.S. can choose between the two sizes for the standard price.