The United States Department of State has warned Americans to avoid unofficial websites offering passport renewal services, saying many of them pose as government portals while charging unnecessary fees for services available free through official channels.

In a public advisory, the department said some third-party websites are designed to look like official government pages but are operated by private businesses.

These sites often charge applicants extra to provide or submit passport renewal forms that can be accessed directly from the US government at no additional cost.

The State Department stressed that the only official website for US passport renewals is travel.state.gov and urged applicants to ensure they are using a government portal before entering any personal information.

According to the department, the easiest way to verify an official US government website is by checking that the web address ends in “.gov”.

It warned that websites ending in “.com”, “.us”, or “.org” are not operated by the US government and may charge users for services they can obtain free of charge.

The department also cautioned that using such third-party platforms means sharing sensitive personal information with private companies that have no official affiliation with the US government.

In a post on X, the US Department of State wrote, “Don’t fall for third-party scams. If you need to renew your passport, go to the official site: http://travel.state.gov/renew.”

It added, “The best way to know that you’re on the official U.S. Department of State site is to look for ‘.gov’ at the end of the url.”

The department further warned, “Do not be fooled by sites ending in ‘.com’, ‘.us’, or ‘.org’ – they are NOT government sites and may charge you more to simply provide forms from our site or send us your application.”

The State Department advised all Americans renewing their passports to use only the official government website to complete their applications and avoid falling victim to online scams.