Is a website charging fees to help me apply for a passport a government scam?
Many unofficial websites charge facilitation fees to process applications you could submit directly to the government for free or at the official fee. Always use your national government's official passport portal.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Explanation
Passport and document application facilitator sites appear at the top of search results — sometimes as paid ads — and charge additional service fees above the official government fee to 'process' your application. While not always outright fraudulent, many collect personal documents, payment, and fees for a service you could perform yourself on the official government website. In the most harmful versions, the site is fake: your payment disappears, your identity documents are harvested for fraud, and no application is ever submitted. When applying for any government document — passport, visa, driving licence, birth certificate — always navigate directly to the official government domain, which you can find through your national government's main portal.
Common red flags
- Website charges a service fee on top of the official government fee
- Site does not clearly state it is not the government's official portal
- Website appeared as a sponsored search result for 'passport application'
- You are asked to upload identity documents to a non-government domain
What to do now
- Navigate directly to your national government's official portal to apply
- Do not upload identity documents to any unofficial third-party site
- If you already paid, check whether your application was ever submitted and dispute if not
- Report the misleading site to your national advertising standards body
Frequently asked questions
Are all facilitator sites fraudulent?
No — some legitimate expediting services exist for travellers needing urgent processing. But these are clearly distinguished businesses, do not hide their non-government status, and charge transparent fees on top of the official one.