passport expiration in the past

[ravena]

hi,

asking for my friend... quoting his question.

/ravena

=======================

By carelessness, I had my passport expired while being F-1 student. It expired in 01/1997, I called my embassy in 04/1997, got appointment with my embassy for 10/1997 (there was huge queue for passport renewal at that time), and got new passport in 03/1998.

Any sort of possible problems arising in the future from the fact that from 01/97 through 04/98 I in fact did not have valid passport while being in US?

Is it possible that expired passport automatically equals to being out of status and big problems can arise if this is discovered? (like 10-year ban on entering US or complications in GC processing...)

I traveled a lot after 1998 and renewed my F-1 visa twice without any problems. I heard that when you get new US visa any past out of status gets forgiven and can't do any bad in the future; is it true?

I changed status to H-1 a year and a half ago and plan to visit home country in January and get H-1 stamped at the same time.

Thanks a lot.

==========================

 

[ginnu]

I dont see any problems keep both the passport expired and new with you