My US passport's full...but it's not ready to expire. What should I do?

We've had this same problem with our passports; the pages have gotten filled with stamps and visas. The solution is easy and, best of all, free. You need to request extra pages in your passport. You'll need to download a form, fill it out, and send the form and your passport to the US Department of State. Go to http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/add/add_850.html to learn all the details about adding pages to your passport.

Our tip: send your passport via overnight mail or overnight courier and send a prepaid return envelope to have your passport returned to you the same way. If the two of you send in your passports at the same time for new pages, send TWO prepaid mailers for their return. We recently sent in our two passports with one prepaid mailer; John's came back in an overnight package but Paris's was returned without any tracking by priority mail.

Also, allow plenty of time to have extra pages added. We'd had new pages added a few years ago and had the passports back in just over a week; this latest request took almost five weeks! (One reason might be the extra traffic at the Houston passport office since New Orleans's office remains closed after Hurricane Katrina.)

Happy travels!