Hand written renewal of short validity passport

james pandavan

My passport was going to expire in November. It was a short validity passport(tatkal) issued in 2003. As it was going to expire, I applied for renewal in London.

To my surprise, they provided me back the same old passport with an handwritten endorsement page stating the passport has been renewed.

My questions are
a) Will I face issues with immigration because the first page of my passport says it expires in 2008?
b) I am likely to travel to US in few months. I've read in few forums that US immigration officers go by the Machine Readable code at the bottom of the first page. If that is the case, will I have issue justifying my case to them?
c) Could I simply apply for a new passport just because I want first page of my passport to reflect all the information correctly?

Mickey S

I don't know for certain what the current rules are for entering the US, but what I do know is that you will not be given the opportunity to "justify your case" with the immigration officers. Travellers of Indian origin require a visa to enter the US, and if the US embassy insists upon a machine-readable passport and yours isn't machine-readable then you will be not be given a visa. End of matter.

With regard to the rest of your query, you will undoubtedly receive a lot of advice and suggestions here, some of it very useful and some less so. But we are not experts, and the only way you will know for certain is by contacting the relevant authorities and asking them.

capt_mahajan

yes.


Or, for US matters, contact their Embassy/Consulate for clarification. Can be terribly slow, but it is possible.

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Outside the machine

Hal

I have a short issue Canadian passport, extended from one year to five. The extension is documented on a separate page, with an official embossed stamp.

I've had many customs agents and airline check-in people in the US, Europe and India tell me my passport has expired, but when I've pointed them to the extension on a separate page there has never been a problem.

skk

The machine-readable aspect of passports is for people whose passports/nationality qualifies under the Visa Waiver program, meaning they don't need a visa to enter - e.g hal2004 above. http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wi...hout_1990.html

Since you said tatkal, looks like you have an Indian passport, then you'll have to go through the whole rigmorale of photos, interview and an actual visa - but look on the bright side - no worries about machine readability - IMO anyway. Check:
http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/obt...isa/index.html

-skk