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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: What happens to your visa if you renew your passport?
New visa time in July but my passport expires in December and its beat up. Also am i correct in thinking i need 6 months after the visa with the passport still usable???
So if i get a new passport in say May or June what happens to my visa that is still good for another month or two?
Im a little concerned because i dont want a new visa, i just want to renew it for another year or more. But my passport i submit will be empty....
And what about that in between time? Do i need to keep my old passport?
Anyone have any experience?
You will need to keep the old passport that has the valid visa in intact. You will have to use both new and old passports when entering China. Make sure you tell them not to cancel the visa when you renew your passport. Sometimes, they accidentally stamp the cancel stamp and you're screwed. Once the old visa expires, you apply the new one with your new passport. That's it.
pain in the ass packing 2 passports ..expired one, with a good visa in it and a new one....I had to do it......pain in the ass......and like above said...make sure they don't clip the still good page( of the old passport.
I would say the bigger pain is dealing with banks should you have a problem with your account. Forget bringing in your new passport with it's different passport number, they will think you're a totally different person if you opened the account with your old passport number. Bring in both passports together and they'll be totally confused; are you this Mike or this Mike? -- and still possibly deny you service/access to your account. Use your old passport that you used to open the account? Oh, but it's got "CANCELLED" stamped in it now so it's not valid anymore. This doesn't apply to all banks but just be prepared for some frustrating BS should you lose/damage your card, forget your pin, or just want to make a large withdrawal in person. Doesn't apply to all banks but I've had good and absolute nightmare experiences with this.
I've seen other foreign nations that offer to print an official reference to the old passport number in the new passport so their citizens don't have the above problem with changing passport numbers.
Yeah just carry around 2 passports, just use the new one for stamps and the old one for the visa. (Oh I replied to that 5 year visa question you had.)
I am Canadian. The corners of the old passport are clipped. and the face page is stamped CANCELED. They do ask if you want to keep the old passport. I recommend you tell them you want to keep it because of the Visa. Make sure you carry both passports until a new Visa is put in your current passport. Old Canadian Passports are good for only 5 years. I have had to do this twice now.
As others write, you keep the old passport in some canceled form, make sure the visa page is intact. Also if your passport number changes, get the embassy to make an official document saying the two passports belong to the same person.
Our marriage certificate is on an old passport of mine. Each time we do something where the marriage certificate is needed, I need to bring my old passport, before mentioned document, new passport which now holds my visa. The old passport would in any other place than China have been destroyed, but here it remains a needed document forever.
Thanks everyone. Looks like 2 passports it is! I still have my old old passport, but havent needed it yet. But I will enquire about trying to keep the same passport number, if its possible. My biggest priority is the Visa, all other issues with passport number, i guess ill try to fix them bridges when I come to them. Thanks again!