Do I need an American Passport Renewal now if my year long visa extends past my old passport's expiration date?
- Joined: Apr 30th, 2009
- Posts: 6
Basically, the question in the Subject!
I currently have an American passport that expires in March of 2011, more than the 6 months validity that is usually required for obtaining a visa. My International School (which of course waited until the last minute) is going to extend (or get a new) Residence Permit/Work Visa for the next school year which will begin on August 1 and go through July 31, 2011. Will the Chinese government put in the year long visa on my old passport? Or will I need to get a new passport? To complicate things further, I have plans to travel within China beginning June 20 and need to be back in the states on July 8. American passport renewals take up to 6 weeks I believe.
The best situation is that they would put the year long visa in my old passport...I'd renew the passport when I return in August and have the time, and the visa could extend to my new passport.
Phew...hope that wasn't too confusing.
Let me know if any one has experienced something similar.
Jon
chaofan
Re: Do I need an American Passport Renewal now if my year ...
I am guessing they will not give you a visa the would go past your passport experation date. I thought I remember reading somewhere that you can not even apply if your passport has less than 6 months remaining on it. Anyway, if you are here at the time you can renew it here at the embassy, just do that when the time gets close.
I will even add a question on to yours, my passport is not about to expire but it is getting full, only about 5 or 6 blank pages left, if you count front and back as two pages, when do I need to add pages? I am hoping I can squeeze one more visa in there before I add pages.
beijingleeo
Re: Do I need an American Passport Renewal now if my year ...
The residence permit can only be extended to the passport expiration date, i.e. March 2011.
Thus you have two options, one of which is to apply for a new passport before you extend your work visa, the other of which is to extend your work visa first and apply for a new passport later.
As far as I know, in China you can apply for a new US passport through the embassy. It takes about 3 weeks according to our customers' experience. Please double check with the embassy.
Based on your schedule, I am afraid you'd better extend your work visa first till March 2011. Before it expires, apply for a new passport and apply for a new work visa till July 31, 2011 again.
Better Service, Easier Life!
http://www.cn-visa.com