Old passports et al

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sriabap

Registered Users (C)
Folks, now that we are US citizens and some of us have gotten the OCI, what are you thinking about your old documents / passports?

I was going through my pile of immigration related paperwork and planning to trash all my NOTICE OF ACTION documents, old Indian passports that have expired (not the one which was cancelled due to OCI), kids old US passports that have expired but does not bear any OCI relation.

Is this a fair assumption or should I retain them for any reason. Any inputs would be appreciated.
 
I wouldn't trash old Passports. Any copies are fine. May be Notice of action is fine too after you complete immigration journey. But I would keep all the original passports, even though they are expired.
 
We did scan and save copies of the paperwork before we shredded them for recycling! The passports we plan on keeping since they have stamps of travel dates plus many visa stickers that we may never get to see on our US pp ;-)
 
we are keeping all passports. I have shredded all notice of actions, 1-140, 485, etc related documents. I am still keeping a copy of n400 and oci app forms. Almost 80% of immiration documents are shredded.
 
Thanks guys. I did scan all the documents but wondering about my old old Indian PP and also my son's old US passport.
 
sriabap said:
Thanks guys. I did scan all the documents but wondering about my old old Indian PP and also my son's old US passport.
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Many people are fascinated with passports and other identity documents. These things keep changing, so your children may like to see them in the future, with all the stamps and visas of countries you've visited. You can also scan them and put them on Flickr! There's a HUGE database of such things there.
 
I kept one copy of all documents. Did not shread any. You never know when you will need the information. For example, a friend of mine applied for Stafford loan for his MBA. They asked him for letter from SSS that showed his draft status. He told them that he got GC after 28 years of age and hence did not need to register. Still he had to get letter from SSS. Problem is, SSS needs copies of approved petitions (With dates) or copies of I-94. Since he gave away I-94 when he went back from trips many years back, only thing he had was approved petitions that showed the visa he used to enter US (Which was H1 so not required to register). If he had discarded those papers, it would have been trouble.

I am not sure what kind of papers you would need when you try to get GC for your parents or relatives, many years down the line.

Why not just keep one copy (or original) in a box and keep that box safe? That does not take huge space !!! I would never discard expired passports. For some weird reasons say 30 years from now, you want to be back to India and be Indian citizens, any and all such documents will be needed.

Just my 2c :)
 
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N400ATL - you make good points and reason enough to hang on to them. I will keep them as well. Thanks
 
N400,
Most of us do keep one copy or even scan all the docs bef shredding. It is a good idea always to shred pers info bef discarding but then one backup copy is a must.
 
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