Transfer Us Visa To New Thai Passport

[husky]

My wife was granted a 10 year USA visa (type R B1/B2) recently and it was placed in her Thai passport. The original Thai passport (that the 10 year visa was placed in) is now expiring so a new thai passport will need to be made. To get the 10 year visa re-issued/replaced in the new thai passport would require a trip to the US embassy (I would imagine), but would an appointment be necessary or would it just require a drop in (since the visa was already issued)? (it is very difficult to make an on-line appointment and hoping to avoid such)

[NanLaew]

US State Department policy is that the 10-year US visa is valid for the entire 10 years despite the carrying document having expired. They will not physically transfer the visa to a new passport. When your wife next travels to the US, she must produce her expired passport as well as her new Thai passport to enter the US. At this point of entry, the two passports will be linked on their system and she will need to travel with both passports until the US visa expires.

When she applies for her new Thai passport, the onus is on her to notify the MFA that there is a valid US visa in the expiring passport. The page containing this visa must not be defaced or altered in any way. I think the MFA merely over-stamps the personal data page as expired in a Thai passport whereas some countries require that the corner of all pages in the expiring passport be cut off. If this happens to a page containing a valid US visa, the visa is irrevocably canceled.

[Lovedog100]

US State Department policy is that the 10-year US visa is valid for the entire 10 years despite the carrying document having expired. They will not physically transfer the visa to a new passport. When your wife next travels to the US, she must produce her expired passport as well as her new Thai passport to enter the US. At this point of entry, the two passports will be linked on their system and she will need to travel with both passports until the US visa expires.

When she applies for her new Thai passport, the onus is on her to notify the MFA that there is a valid US visa in the expiring passport. The page containing this visa must not be defaced or altered in any way. I think the MFA merely over-stamps the personal data page as expired in a Thai passport whereas some countries require that the corner of all pages in the expiring passport be cut off. If this happens to a page containing a valid US visa, the visa is irrevocably canceled.

My wife got a new passport after we got married with my last name. The old passport they just stamped CANCELED in large red letters. Her new passport is valid for 5 years, yet she has a 10 year visa. I did some searching on the state department site about it. When her passport expires, she will have to travel to the US with two passports, one being valid, and the other having the visa in it.

[sabaijai]

Here's the official word from US Customs & Border Protection:

If my visa is in an expired passport, what should I do?

If your visa is in a passport that has expired or will expire within 6 months of the end of your U.S. visit, you will need to get a new passport. However, you do not need to apply for a new visa. Just bring both your new passport and your old passport with the valid visa to present to the CBP Officer when you arrive in the U.S.

The U.S. has an agreement with certain countries exempting their citizens from the requirement that their passports be valid for up to six months past the end of their U.S. visit.. Citizens of the countries which are exempt the six-month rule need to have a passport valid for their intended period of stay. Please contact the U.S. Embassy in your country of citizenship to determine if you are exempt from this requirement.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/826/~/what-to-do-if-my-visa-is-in-an-expired-passport

and from the US Dept of State:

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?

No. If your visa is still valid you can travel to the United States with your two passports, as long as the visa is valid, not damaged, and is the appropriate type of visa required for your principal purpose of travel. (Example: tourist visa, when your principal purpose of travel is tourism). 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.). When you arrive at the United States port of entry (POE) the Customs and Border Protection Immigration Officer will check your visa in the old passport and if s/he decides to admit you into the United States they will stamp your new passport with an admission stamp along with the annotation "VIOPP" (visa in other passport). Do not try to remove the visa from your old passport and stick it into the new valid passport. If you do so, your visa will no longer be valid.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/questions/questions_1253.html#7

[husky]

Thanks for all of the information. We did get the new Thai passport and in the process they mentioned that if you want to reference a visa in another passport you should get an endorsement added to the new passport. Today we took the new and old passport to the passport center and paid a fee of about 100 baht and they added this endorsement:

Endorsement NO. xxxxx The holder has previously travelled on Passport No. ######## issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Bangkok on xxxxx which has been cancelled and returned to the holder, the visas duly affixed still remain valid. Director of Passport Division Done at BANGKOK on (date).

I infer that this may be required by some other countries to confirm that the expired passport is actually linked to the current passport (although with the same name, dob, etc they should already know this).

Another thing: in our case there is nothing to indicate the old passport is cancelled, just that the passport itself is expired (they did not stamp cancelled in it or otherwise deface it).