The Department of State has waived passport fees for members of U.S. search and rescue teams deployed internationally under federal disaster relief agreements.
“This change honors the critical work of American first responders who answer the call to assist abroad,” Mora Namdar, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, wrote in an X post.
The change is part of the First Responders Passport Act and went into effect on April 3, as announced in a public notice by the department.
The rule states that the passport fee would be waived for a person operating under a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement with the United States Government to participate in search, rescue, and other related disaster relief operations within a foreign country following a natural disaster….