Vinnic

After searching a lot of posts, I wasn't able to find many experiences
about expiring passports while waiting for approval of I-751s. We
filed our I-751 to NSC in May 2003, and my spouse's French passport
expires April 2004. We're applying for a new passport this week, but
it could take up to 3 months to process due to the new
machine-readable passport requirements. The letter extending the
conditional green card expires at the end of July 2004, and NSC is
still processing I-751s from December 2002. Do we need to be
concerned about an expired passport at this stage? If we hear from
NSC before the new passport (whether for an interview, approval, or
another stamp), is an expired passport ok if they ask to see one? If
we need another stamp to extend the conditional green card and don't
have the new passport yet, will they stamp the old passport or issue a
new extension letter? Also, for those of you who have French
passports, will the Consulate allow us to keep the old passport at all
if we request this? Would the USCIS at any time require us to have
the old passport (would they need to look at the original K1 Visa,
I-551 stamp, etc.)? Any help is appreciated.

Michael D. Young

Vinnic wrote:

    > After searching a lot of posts, I wasn't able to find many experiences
    > about expiring passports while waiting for approval of I-751s. We
    > filed our I-751 to NSC in May 2003, and my spouse's French passport
    > expires April 2004. We're applying for a new passport this week, but
    > it could take up to 3 months to process due to the new
    > machine-readable passport requirements. The letter extending the
    > conditional green card expires at the end of July 2004, and NSC is
    > still processing I-751s from December 2002. Do we need to be
    > concerned about an expired passport at this stage? If we hear from
    > NSC before the new passport (whether for an interview, approval, or
    > another stamp), is an expired passport ok if they ask to see one? If
    > we need another stamp to extend the conditional green card and don't
    > have the new passport yet, will they stamp the old passport or issue a
    > new extension letter? Also, for those of you who have French
    > passports, will the Consulate allow us to keep the old passport at all
    > if we request this? Would the USCIS at any time require us to have
    > the old passport (would they need to look at the original K1 Visa,
    > I-551 stamp, etc.)? Any help is appreciated.

I figured it was going to take a year for the AOS approval and I-551 card
to be issued and my wife's passport was going to expire in less than a
year, so I asked if they would stamp an expired passport. The then INS
officer handling my wife and daughter's AOS case said they wouldn't stamp
an expired passport. I would assume that applies to any I-551 stamp no
matter what the reason.

Caro

I did not have to renew my passport with the new rules at the Consulate (was able to have it same day 1 year ago), but I went to the (SF) consulate a month or so ago to do a "procuration de vote". The consular staff seemed to be rather accomodating with the passport requests (but once again, I was just overhearing and I did not do a request myself) and I ***think*** (but you need to check this) that they let you keep your passport while the new one is being processed. However, it looks like you need to bring your old passport so that it can be voided before they give you the new passport. But maybe once again, I misunderstood because I was not applying for a passport myself, so you need to check on that.

Why don't you give a call to the Consulate of your circonscription and ask them?

Also, the consulate is used to having to deal with people whose passports contain visas, etc, and my passport was returned to me with the first page voided. Make sure you ask for it back, though, as you never know what you might need from USCIS in the future! Also, I ***think*** (but once again, it was just overhearing) that the people applying for their passports at the consulate had to come back to have their passport voided and pick up their new passport. If you mail in your passport, I have no idea what happens. I would imagine that one way or another, they would leave you with a passport, voided or not... It would not be reasonable to expect people to go for 3 months without passport in a foreign country!!!!

Caroline

Sendbag

depend on your ins local office,they may stamp the passport or give
you a letter
and they can stamp the old passport but I prefer if they stamp the new
one,so you can wait until you get the new one ,I think the French
Consulate allow you to keep the old passport
anyway you don't need a stamp in her passport unless you are planning
to travel outside usa so relax until she get her new passport and
prepare the N-400 for her
good luck



[email protected] (Vinnic) wrote in message news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > After searching a lot of posts, I wasn't able to find many experiences
    > about expiring passports while waiting for approval of I-751s. We
    > filed our I-751 to NSC in May 2003, and my spouse's French passport
    > expires April 2004. We're applying for a new passport this week, but
    > it could take up to 3 months to process due to the new
    > machine-readable passport requirements. The letter extending the
    > conditional green card expires at the end of July 2004, and NSC is
    > still processing I-751s from December 2002. Do we need to be
    > concerned about an expired passport at this stage? If we hear from
    > NSC before the new passport (whether for an interview, approval, or
    > another stamp), is an expired passport ok if they ask to see one? If
    > we need another stamp to extend the conditional green card and don't
    > have the new passport yet, will they stamp the old passport or issue a
    > new extension letter? Also, for those of you who have French
    > passports, will the Consulate allow us to keep the old passport at all
    > if we request this? Would the USCIS at any time require us to have
    > the old passport (would they need to look at the original K1 Visa,
    > I-551 stamp, etc.)? Any help is appreciated.

Sammy

[email protected] (Vinnic) wrote in message news:<[email protected]. com>...
    > After searching a lot of posts, I wasn't able to find many experiences
    > about expiring passports while waiting for approval of I-751s. We
    > filed our I-751 to NSC in May 2003, and my spouse's French passport
    > expires April 2004. We're applying for a new passport this week, but
    > it could take up to 3 months to process due to the new
    > machine-readable passport requirements. The letter extending the
    > conditional green card expires at the end of July 2004, and NSC is
    > still processing I-751s from December 2002. Do we need to be
    > concerned about an expired passport at this stage? If we hear from
    > NSC before the new passport (whether for an interview, approval, or
    > another stamp), is an expired passport ok if they ask to see one? If
    > we need another stamp to extend the conditional green card and don't
    > have the new passport yet, will they stamp the old passport or issue a
    > new extension letter? Also, for those of you who have French
    > passports, will the Consulate allow us to keep the old passport at all
    > if we request this? Would the USCIS at any time require us to have
    > the old passport (would they need to look at the original K1 Visa,
    > I-551 stamp, etc.)? Any help is appreciated.

Hi,

They will give you I-94 card with a stamp on it.
I had the same experience before. Do not worry with that I-94 card
with stamp I can travel abroad too.
sammy

vinnic

Thank you for your replies. They are all helpful. We will go to the Chicago Consulate to apply in person for the new passport Thursday. Caroline, I think you are right about being able to keep the old passport until the new one is ready to be picked up in person. And, we'll be sure to ask for the old passport back marked void when the new one is ready in order to keep the original K1 visa, I-551 stamp, and other INS travel stamps in case the USCIS asks to see any original documents for some reason. Hopefully this won't be a problem, because as you said the Consulates are used to dealing with such situations. I'll post more as we find out. (Caroline, I see you went through Detroit originally - we did too).

Also, thank you Michael for posting your experience with not being able to receive the I-551 stamp for the AOS. We'll have to see what the Detroit USCIS Office does when the time comes for the I-751 Removal of Conditions. Like Sendbag and Sammy posted (thanks to both of you too for posting), I'm sure Detroit will be able to give us something if we don't have the new passport yet. Maybe they'll stamp the old passport, give us a letter, or a stamped I-94 card. Or better yet, maybe the new passport will arrive before we even hear from NSC about the I-751 since they're still on December 2002. Again, I'll post as we go through the process. Thanks!

And O/T, I usually post from Google. When I tried today, Google told me that they had received too many posts from me today and to try back later! This post was the first time and only time I've written anything in months, so I thought I'd see what BritishExpats was like instead. So far, it's great! That's why you see the email switch. I'll continue to post this way from now on. Thanks again for all your help everyone.

Hypertweeky

My passport expires next year, can I renew it before?
Thanks

vinnic

I'm not sure how soon you can renew a passport. I would check with your consulate to find out. My husband's expires in 1 month so he's able to renew now.

Hypertweeky

Thanks I sure will.

vinnic

Update: We went to the French Consulate in Chicago yesterday to renew my husband's expiring passport. He will keep the expiring passport until the new one arrives, which will take a minimum of three months according to the consulate. We can also apply for an "emergency passport" (which is the same as the older nonmachine-readable format) if we do not receive the new passport yet and need to get an extension stamp on the conditional green card if we don't hear from NSC about our I-751. The consulate will also allow us to keep the expiring passport marked void or cancelled if we ask them at that time (in case the USCIS needs to see any original documentation such as the K1 Visa, I-551 stamp, and prior travel stamps from trips to the U.S. to visit me). Hopefully the new machine-readable passport will be processed soon and we hear from NSC by the time the extended conditional green card expires (end of July 2004). Thanks again for your help answering our questions!

Shussbar

    >Update: We went to the French Consulate in Chicago yesterday to renew
    >my husband's expiring passport. He will keep the expiring passport
    >until the new one arrives, which will take a minimum of three months
    >according to the consulate. We can also apply for an "emergency
    >passport" (which is the same as the older nonmachine-readable format).

Before the Consulate were issuing pasport right away, in 15 minutes.
This time is gone now with the new kind of passport needed.

vinnic

Hi Shussbar. 15 minutes would be great! Perhaps the emergency passports can still be processed in as little as 15 minutes too, or at least the same day, since they are the old format and the consulate does them on sight. According to them, the new passports are all done in France and that's why there is a delay of 3 months at the present time. So for now it looks like we are doing more happy waiting.

Shussbar

    >Perhaps the emergency
    >passports can still be processed in as little as 15 minutes too, or at
    >least the same day,

That s how mine was done, 2 years ago ( old format)

    > According to them, the new passports are all done in
    >France and that's why there is a delay of 3 months at the present time.

That s what i heard too.

Why do you need a new format ?

vinnic

I might be wrong, but I think that the US is requiring all travelers to eventually have the new machine-readable passports. So, France is currently in the process of switching over to this new format. Since there is a such a delay in processing the new ones, the Consulate can still process an old one fairly quickly for emergency situations for the time being. Here's a link that might be helpful for more information:

http://www.consulfrance-chicago.org/main_formalites.htm

JoshsCarole

Yes, in October 2004, all French citizens who will want to travel to the US will have to have a machine-readable passport. So Vinnic, you did the right thing =)