Dual citizenship A-B (non US), Passport expiring

9/4/2017 10:38:31 PM

5) Stopover in the U.S. Now the Visa is on a different country’s
passport (Venezuela) as her ONLY valid passport at the moment
(Colombia). […] Should she show them both?

Several sources state that a valid US visa in an expired passport can only be used with a valid passport from the same country.

From Department of State – About Visas, expand the question “My old passport has already expired. My visa to travel to the United States is still valid but in my expired passport. Do I need to apply for a new visa with my new passport?”:

Both passports (the valid and the expired one with the visa) should be
from the same country and type (Example: both Uruguayan regular
passports, both official passports, etc.).

From the Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual 9 FAM 403.9-3(B)(4)(b):

The alien’s nationality, as indicated in the new passport, must be the
same as that shown in the passport bearing the visa foil.

So I believe that using a visa issued on an expired passport from one country with a valid passport from another country will not work. (This kind of makes sense as the nationality sometimes affects the issuance of visas, e.g. some visas can only be issued to certain nationalities, and often the length of validity of visas varies between nationalities, so being able to automatically transfer a visa from one country’s passport to another may be problematic.)

8/28/2017 9:03:26 AM

2) Stopover in the U.S. The U.S. Visa is on the old Venezuelan passport, so she must show that one. She must also show the newer, valid Venezuelan passport that expires in October. Q.: Will the upcoming near expiration date be a problem for the stopover?

This should not be a problem, since Venezuela is on the “six-month club” of countries whose passports the US does not require to be valid for six months, but only for the extent of the stay (that is, the layover).

5) Stopover in the U.S. Now the Visa is on a different country’s passport (Venezuela) as her ONLY valid passport at the moment (Colombia). Should she instead get an ESTA with her Colombian passport? Should she show them both?

This is likely be a problem.

“Get an ESTA with her Colombian passport” is out of the question, because nationals of Colombia (or, for that matter, of Venezuela) are not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program that the ESTA mechanism is used for.

Whether she can use her valid visa together with a valid passport from a different country than the one her valid visa is in, seems to be a good question. I can’t find anything that says outright she can’t, but the first problem will be to convince airline agents in Germany that she can. If they decide, rightly or wrongly, to err on the side of caution she won’t even be allowed to board and what US border guards will actually do then never enters the question.

If there is not time to get an US visa in the Colombian passport, I think she ought to look into changing her travel plans to fly directly from somewhere in Europe to Bogotá. There are not many such flights, but they’re there.

Will the ICE/TSA agent even understand what the heck is going on?

TSA is irrelevant. That’s the agency that runs security checkpoints for people boarding flights in the US; they have nothing to do with immigration checks for arriving passengers on international flights. Immigration inspections are performed by officers U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

Search Posts

Latest posts

Popular posts