How can I apply for an American passport?

Applying for a US Passport is rather easy to do for a United States citizen. You can find the paperwork you need online, usually through a website run by the government. You print it out, fill it out, and then mail it in or take it to the post office. Once you’ve done that, you get a picture taken at the post office (so it’s probably better to take it in), and you have to wait about five weeks before you actually get your passport.

However, once you have waited and your passport arrives, you can use it immediately and you don’t have to worry about renewing it for five years. A passport, in this case, can be used as ID as long as it’s not expired, and some places may take a recently expired passport as a form of ID (IE, it expired within, say, the last month).