Applying for Passport from your old Country
Apr 9th 2004, 2:47 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2001
Location: Australia
Posts: 163
Applying for Passport from your old Country
Dont know if any one has had this problem or not It is sure one to watch out for
Recently my wife and I returned to her home in Mauritius Last year she had to apply to get her passport renewed in Mauritius as she still has another year to go before she can take out her Australian Citizenship.
Everthing went fine untill we went to check in at the airport to return to Australa The number on her Passport would not come up on their screen No Number - No Boarding; we were told. We did spend an anxious 90 minutes while they had to contact
Australia to get a verification of the Passport number . This is only my view of what happened When my wife left Australia ,her passport was first registered here; whereas 95% of people holding a passport from a different country first register that passport in their home country. In my discussions with the Immigration people at the airport I did mention that they were able to let her in to the country and asked why that wasnt picked up then. All is well that ends well. Any one else had this problem
Recently my wife and I returned to her home in Mauritius Last year she had to apply to get her passport renewed in Mauritius as she still has another year to go before she can take out her Australian Citizenship.
Everthing went fine untill we went to check in at the airport to return to Australa The number on her Passport would not come up on their screen No Number - No Boarding; we were told. We did spend an anxious 90 minutes while they had to contact
Australia to get a verification of the Passport number . This is only my view of what happened When my wife left Australia ,her passport was first registered here; whereas 95% of people holding a passport from a different country first register that passport in their home country. In my discussions with the Immigration people at the airport I did mention that they were able to let her in to the country and asked why that wasnt picked up then. All is well that ends well. Any one else had this problem
Last edited by mozz48; Apr 9th 2004 at 2:51 am.
Apr 9th 2004, 9:12 pm
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Applying for Passport from your old Country
Did she carry the old passport with her visa stamp in it?
This is normally not a problem except for the fact that the new passport
and visa won't match up electronically, and a supervisor may be needed
to mannually override the system to allow check-in. They will do this
if they see the visa is in the old passport and still valid.
Took more like 10/15 minutes rather than 90 when it happened to me at
Heathrow last year.
What do you mean by 'registering' her passport. With whom?
Jeremy
mozz48 wrote:
> Dont know if any one has had this problem or not It is sure one to
> watch out for
> Recently my wife and I returned to her home in Mauritius
> Last year she had to apply to get her passport renewed in Mauritius as
> she still has another year to go before she can take out her Australian
> Citizenship.
> Everthing went fine untill we went to check in at the
> airport to return to Australa The number on her Passport would not come
> up on their screen No Number - No Boarding; we were told. We did spend
> an anxious 90 minutes while they had to contact
> Australia to get a
> verification of the Passport number . This is only my view of what
> happened When my wife left Australia ,her passport was first registered
> here; whereas 95% of people holding a passport from a different country
> first register that passport in their home country. In my discussions
> with the Immigration people at the airport I did mention that they were
> able to let her in to the country and asked why that wasnt picked up
> then. All is well that ends well. Any one else had this problem
>
>
--
This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction
This is normally not a problem except for the fact that the new passport
and visa won't match up electronically, and a supervisor may be needed
to mannually override the system to allow check-in. They will do this
if they see the visa is in the old passport and still valid.
Took more like 10/15 minutes rather than 90 when it happened to me at
Heathrow last year.
What do you mean by 'registering' her passport. With whom?
Jeremy
mozz48 wrote:
> Dont know if any one has had this problem or not It is sure one to
> watch out for
> Recently my wife and I returned to her home in Mauritius
> Last year she had to apply to get her passport renewed in Mauritius as
> she still has another year to go before she can take out her Australian
> Citizenship.
> Everthing went fine untill we went to check in at the
> airport to return to Australa The number on her Passport would not come
> up on their screen No Number - No Boarding; we were told. We did spend
> an anxious 90 minutes while they had to contact
> Australia to get a
> verification of the Passport number . This is only my view of what
> happened When my wife left Australia ,her passport was first registered
> here; whereas 95% of people holding a passport from a different country
> first register that passport in their home country. In my discussions
> with the Immigration people at the airport I did mention that they were
> able to let her in to the country and asked why that wasnt picked up
> then. All is well that ends well. Any one else had this problem
>
>
--
This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction
Apr 11th 2004, 1:56 am
#3
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2001
Location: Australia
Posts: 163
Re: Applying for Passport from your old Country
Hi Jeremy
Yes my wife had her Permanent Residency Visa stamped on her new passport There was absolutely "No Way" was the guy going to over-ride the system manually to allow her to board at that time. I even asked about what was stamped on her passport about the Permanent Residence Visa That's when he shook his head and told me that it didnt matter what was written on the passport and that if her Passport number didnt come up on the screen that my wife wouldnt be boarding I did ask him why there was no problem with the passport number when she initially entered the country and why this problem hadnt been detected
I dont dispute you in the fact that it only took you 10-15 minutes to get your passport number verified at Heathrow :I can also assure you very strongly that it did takeus 90 minutes to get the verification come through to " Plaisance" airport . They informed me that they had to wait from a verification from Australia Where I dont know I did know that it was 10.00 pm in Australia at that time Obviously there are systems in place to do this .
The main reason for logging in this post is to try and get an explaination of what actually goes on in these scenarios. Also to find out if it happens to any one else and to make people aware that it can happen.
Yes my wife had her Permanent Residency Visa stamped on her new passport There was absolutely "No Way" was the guy going to over-ride the system manually to allow her to board at that time. I even asked about what was stamped on her passport about the Permanent Residence Visa That's when he shook his head and told me that it didnt matter what was written on the passport and that if her Passport number didnt come up on the screen that my wife wouldnt be boarding I did ask him why there was no problem with the passport number when she initially entered the country and why this problem hadnt been detected
I dont dispute you in the fact that it only took you 10-15 minutes to get your passport number verified at Heathrow :I can also assure you very strongly that it did takeus 90 minutes to get the verification come through to " Plaisance" airport . They informed me that they had to wait from a verification from Australia Where I dont know I did know that it was 10.00 pm in Australia at that time Obviously there are systems in place to do this .
The main reason for logging in this post is to try and get an explaination of what actually goes on in these scenarios. Also to find out if it happens to any one else and to make people aware that it can happen.
Apr 11th 2004, 6:42 pm
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Applying for Passport from your old Country
Hi Mozz
It sounds to me like the issue was different from mine, in that your
wife had a visa label in her *new* passport that didn't come up on the
system. Nevertheless, I quote from s229 of the Migration Act:
--------
(5)
It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection
(1) in relation to the bringing of a non-citizen into Australia on a
vessel if it is established:
(a) that the non-citizen was, when he or she boarded or last boarded the
vessel for travel to Australia, in possession of evidence of a visa that
was in effect and that permitted him or her to travel to and enter
Australia, being a visa that:
(i) did not appear to have been cancelled; and
(ii) was expressed to continue in effect until, or at least until, the
date of the non-citizen's expected entry into Australia;
-------
I would take the incident up in writing with the airline, and see what
they have to say. In my view, the valid passport plus visa label should
have been enough for them to allow boarding without needing a specific
authority from Canberra.
I would also write to DIMIA Central Office in Canberra and inform them
of what happened, if the airline maintains it was correct to do what it
did, and then see what they have to say.
When the visa was stamped in your wife's new passport (was that done in
Mauritius) then it *should* have been reflected on DIMIA's system and
for some reason it appears not to have been.
You do want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.
As a side issue, many people have valid visas in old passports, and
airline staff sometimes are not aware these remain valid. Usually the
supervisors are clued-in, but if there are problems with specific
airlines or airports that require some DIMIA information being provided,
they need to know about it.
By the way, as far as I know the Entry Operations Centre in Canberra is
a 24-hour operation.
Jeremy
mozz48 wrote:
> Hi Jeremy
> Yes my wife had her Permanent Residency Visa
> stamped on her new passport There was absolutely "No Way" was the guy
> going to over-ride the system manually to allow her to board at that
> time. I even asked about what was stamped on her passport about the
> Permanent Residence Visa That's when he shook his head and told me that
> it didnt matter what was written on the passport and that if her
> Passport number didnt come up on the screen that my wife wouldnt be
> boarding I did ask him why there was no problem with the passport
> number when she initially entered the country and why this problem hadnt
> been detected
> I dont dispute you in the fact that it
> only took you 10-15 minutes to get your passport number verified at
> Heathrow :I can also assure you very strongly that it did takeus 90
> minutes to get the verification come through to " Plaisance" airport .
> They informed me that they had to wait from a verification from
> Australia Where I dont know I did know that it was 10.00 pm in
> Australia at that time Obviously there are systems in place to do this
>
> The main reason for logging in this post is to try
> and get an explaination of what actually goes on in these scenarios.
> Also to find out if it happens to any one else and to make people aware
> that it can happen.
>
>
--
This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction
It sounds to me like the issue was different from mine, in that your
wife had a visa label in her *new* passport that didn't come up on the
system. Nevertheless, I quote from s229 of the Migration Act:
--------
(5)
It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection
(1) in relation to the bringing of a non-citizen into Australia on a
vessel if it is established:
(a) that the non-citizen was, when he or she boarded or last boarded the
vessel for travel to Australia, in possession of evidence of a visa that
was in effect and that permitted him or her to travel to and enter
Australia, being a visa that:
(i) did not appear to have been cancelled; and
(ii) was expressed to continue in effect until, or at least until, the
date of the non-citizen's expected entry into Australia;
-------
I would take the incident up in writing with the airline, and see what
they have to say. In my view, the valid passport plus visa label should
have been enough for them to allow boarding without needing a specific
authority from Canberra.
I would also write to DIMIA Central Office in Canberra and inform them
of what happened, if the airline maintains it was correct to do what it
did, and then see what they have to say.
When the visa was stamped in your wife's new passport (was that done in
Mauritius) then it *should* have been reflected on DIMIA's system and
for some reason it appears not to have been.
You do want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.
As a side issue, many people have valid visas in old passports, and
airline staff sometimes are not aware these remain valid. Usually the
supervisors are clued-in, but if there are problems with specific
airlines or airports that require some DIMIA information being provided,
they need to know about it.
By the way, as far as I know the Entry Operations Centre in Canberra is
a 24-hour operation.
Jeremy
mozz48 wrote:
> Hi Jeremy
> Yes my wife had her Permanent Residency Visa
> stamped on her new passport There was absolutely "No Way" was the guy
> going to over-ride the system manually to allow her to board at that
> time. I even asked about what was stamped on her passport about the
> Permanent Residence Visa That's when he shook his head and told me that
> it didnt matter what was written on the passport and that if her
> Passport number didnt come up on the screen that my wife wouldnt be
> boarding I did ask him why there was no problem with the passport
> number when she initially entered the country and why this problem hadnt
> been detected
> I dont dispute you in the fact that it
> only took you 10-15 minutes to get your passport number verified at
> Heathrow :I can also assure you very strongly that it did takeus 90
> minutes to get the verification come through to " Plaisance" airport .
> They informed me that they had to wait from a verification from
> Australia Where I dont know I did know that it was 10.00 pm in
> Australia at that time Obviously there are systems in place to do this
>
> The main reason for logging in this post is to try
> and get an explaination of what actually goes on in these scenarios.
> Also to find out if it happens to any one else and to make people aware
> that it can happen.
>
>
--
This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction
