Passport Renewal

[abcdefg]

Hello. Both me and my fiancee live and work in China. He is Spanish, and this summer we will get married in Spain and return to China at the end of August. At that time we will then start with the Green Card procedure and filing the I-130 petition. My passport will expire in July of 2017. I plan to renew my passport in Spain this summer before returning to China. Will this pose any sort of problem for filing the I-130? Or will this pose a problem for me returning to China? I only ask this because my current passport has my residence permit, and it will be cancelled the moment I apply for a renewal passport. I don't want this to cause any sort of problem. Thank you very much!

 

 

[Randy W]

Hello. Both me and my fiancee live and work in China. He is Spanish, and this summer we will get married in Spain and return to China at the end of August. At that time we will then start with the Green Card procedure and filing the I-130 petition. My passport will expire in July of 2017. I plan to renew my passport in Spain this summer before returning to China. Will this pose any sort of problem for filing the I-130? Or will this pose a problem for me returning to China? I only ask this because my current passport has my residence permit, and it will be cancelled the moment I apply for a renewal passport. I don't want this to cause any sort of problem. Thank you very much!

 

 

 

 

Be sure to keep your old passport, which will be returned to you with holes punched in it.

 

I showed up at the border one time (to leave China) with a COMPLETELY blank new passport - it confused the heck out of the first Immigrations Officer, who then passed me along to another, who knew what to do. They have complete computerized records, and I had the entry/exit stamps and residence permit in the old passport.

 

My old permit expired while I was gone, so I had to apply for a Q1 visa anyway while I was in the U.S.

 

But ENTERING China with your new passport and visa still in the old passport? Well, you might ask before you leave. The worst case is that you would need to buy a new visa to enter China with.

 

Consider two possibilities - one is getting a re-entry permit from the PSB. Another is to get your NEW passport in order BEFORE you leave China - you can get a new passport and then a new residence permit (if needed) in probably under a month. You'll need to decide what works best for you.

 

No, this will NOT affect your I-130 application in any way.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)

[jonathantwu]

I traveled with two passports with a valid visa on the expired passport until I get a 10-year visa on the new one. I don't see the need to renew a passport with one year left personally.