passport expired, ok for N-400 interview?

[passport1]

Hi, I will go for my N-400 interview in the next couple of month but my passport expired since last summer. Is that ok, or do I need to have a VALID passport to bring to the interview? Thanks a million!

 

[fitness99]

Hi, I will go for my N-400 interview in the next couple of month but my passport expired since last summer. Is that ok, or do I need to have a VALID passport to bring to the interview? Thanks a million!

Just to be on the safe side, go ahead and renew it.... .

 

[Rahul Kumar]

How can you be here in this country legally when your passport in your home country has expired ? Get it renewed at once

 

[passport1]

How can you be here in this country legally when your passport in your home country has expired ? Get it renewed at once

Well, do green card holders need valid passports to stay in the united states? I thought only when they travel outside the u.s. will they need their passports. Is that not right? When green card holders enter the u.s., they need a valid passport from their home country, but to legally stay here, do they really need valid passports?

 

[passport1]

Imagine you are sitting for N-400 interview and you were asked the following question by interviewing officer:

Please explain your logic, reasoning and circumstances that prohibited you from renewing your current Passport? You are presently in a foreign country; how will you prove your nationality to USCIS i.e. the one you stated on your N-400? Was there any national security reason that you either did not try renewal, or your government refused to renew your passpost?

WHAT WILL YOUR ANSWER BE!!!

I didn't need to travel outside the u.s. and therefore I didn't think I needed a valid passport. Isn't a green card sufficient proof of my legal status here in the u.s?

 

[Rahul Kumar]

Well, do green card holders need valid passports to stay in the united states? I thought only when they travel outside the u.s. will they need their passports. Is that not right? When green card holders enter the u.s., they need a valid passport from their home country, but to legally stay here, do they really need valid passports?

You are a foreign citizen in an alien country. The Greencard/visa is subject to terms that your passport is valid. once that document is invalid or expired your greencard will cease to have value. so get that passport renewed immediately weather you travel or not

 

[Harish Krishna]

"You are a foreign citizen in an alien country. The Greencard/visa is subject to terms that your passport is valid. once that document is invalid or expired your greencard will cease to have value. so get that passport renewed immediately weather you travel or not"

Rahul, this just simply ISN'T TRUE. Green card validity IS NOT dependent on whether you have a valid passport from your country.

 

[Rahul Kumar]

Harish,

As as permanant resident you are still not a US Citizen. So you have to be a citizen of some other country and when the document from that foreign country expires the CIS has no way of knowing if the country intentionally revoked the passport or if the person just let it lapse.

I would not go to the CIS with an expired passport !

 

[GeneM]

I cannot believe this is your logic. GREEN CARD IS PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT. YOU ARE SITTING IN FOREIGN LAND ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL LAW PROTOCOLS. IF YOU WERE TO BE KILLED/KIDNAPPED/ENGAGED IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OUTSIDE USA, INDIAN GOVERNMENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS/WHEREABOUTS, NOT THE USA BECASUE YOU JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE THEIR "GREEN CARD."

REMEMBER: PASSPORTS ARE THOUSAND TIME MORE IMPORTANT THAN MERE TRAVEL DOCUMENTS. RENEW YOUR PASSPORT IMMEDIATELY AND TAKE IT WITH YOU DURING IINTERVIEW. AND, PLEASE NEVER EVER GIVE THIS ADVICE TO ANYBODY ELSE!!!

LUNAmoped, Green card is not a privilege and it is not a right. It is a status that a persion has IN the United States. Why are you talking about the poster being killed or kidnapped outside of the US? First he needs to get outside of the US, and for that for entering most other countries he would have to have a valid passport.
He might not even be an Indian citizen, for all we know, and why would the Indian government be responsible for its citizen's actions and whereabouts? That reminds me of the old Soviet-era government control.Since I am not an Indian, I have no clue, but it seems strange.

Please explain your logic, reasoning and circumstances that prohibited you from renewing your current Passport? You are presently in a foreign country; how will you prove your nationality to USCIS i.e. the one you stated on your N-400? Was there any national security reason that you either did not try renewal, or your government refused to renew your passpost?

There is a lot of reasons why a person does not have a valid passport. A person can be a refugee, asylee, parolee etc , where there is no way for that person to seek anything from the government that he or she fled. Or the country might no longer exist, like the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia. I personally know Ukranians who left the Soviet Union before the breakup and had extremely hard time getting their passports.

And your nationality is stated right on the permanent resident card.

You are a foreign citizen in an alien country. The Greencard/visa is subject to terms that your passport is valid. once that document is invalid or expired your greencard will cease to have value. so get that passport renewed immediately weather you travel or not

Where did you get it from?

 

[Harish Krishna]

As as permanant resident you are still not a US Citizen. So you have to be a citizen of some other country and when the document from that foreign country expires the CIS has no way of knowing if the country intentionally revoked the passport or if the person just let it lapse.

I would not go to the CIS with an expired passport !

I wouldn't go to CIS with an expired passport, or any other dependency either. But that has nothing to do with your green card validity. In any case, if a passport is revoked, there will be seals and stamps on it indicating so.

 

[Rahul Kumar]

Haresh,

Not necessarily. If India revokes your citizenship they dont have to stamp your passport as cancelled . You could claim you lost the passport etc, but that does not stop them from revoking your passport or citizenship !!

GeneM,
Any visa is depenendant on the passport under which it is issued. A Green card is 'special' as it is provided as a separate document rather than a stamp on the passport. But that does not mean that you can let your passport expire once you
have a GC. If you are in a foreign country you must at all times keep your passport current. Dont let a CIS officer catch you without your greencard or with an expired passport

 

[GeneM]

GeneM,
Any visa is depenendant on the passport under which it is issued. A Green card is 'special' as it is provided as a separate document rather than a stamp on the passport. But that does not mean that you can let your passport expire once you
have a GC. If you are in a foreign country you must at all times keep your passport current. Dont let a CIS officer catch you without your greencard or with an expired passport

In my opinion you confuse a visa and a permanent residency status. Green Card is not a "special" [visa] and does not depend on the passport under which it was issued.

On the other hand, I agree that if you can you should have your passport valid at all times. I was just trying to make a point that sometimes it is not possible to do it, or it can take a long time.

 

[Rahul Kumar]

GeneM,
Try entering the US with an expired passport and a valid GC. You will know what Im talking about

 

[yalag]

Forgive me guys for barging into this discussion.

There seems to be a consensus that one MUST have his passport valid at any given time.

So this discussion is more of a legal theoretical discussion.

I was wondering, however, whether there is indeed any legal binding between the GC and the passport. I would like to make the following points:

Clearly, one cannot enter and leave the country without a valid passport, but I have read in the USCIS website that a reentry permit may serve as a passport (in case one does not have any passport of his own- like some refugees and asylum seekers, etc.)

I have never read that as a GC holder I must walk around with my passport (something toursts must do).

I may be wrong about this but I do not remember ever reading a requirement that we mus keep our passport valid.

I have no strong opinion about the answer to this discussion since it is clearly a legal one and I simply have no clue to the correct answer. If anyone does, I am curious enough to be interested in the legally (not hunches...) informed answer.

Yalag

 

[GeneM]

GeneM,
Try entering the US with an expired passport and a valid GC. You will know what Im talking about

I never disagreed with the fact that you have to have a valid passport to enter the US by air.

However, this is far from saying that your GC is a special visa and is tied to your passport. You posted that when your passport is expired so is your status, and I just simply do not think that it is true.

 

[enjoylife]

Fyi,
Was reading the Guide to Naturalization of USCIS. Page 36 of the guide talks about Being Interviewed. The middle column item 3 says redarding documents to bring for interview. "your passport (even if it has expired)".

Thought this might be useful to the discussion. So I guess if a person has no need to travel outside the US until after getting citizenship why would one want to pay money to their own country for renewing a passport close to time of getting citizenship. After citizenship the person would use US passport anyway.

 

[enjoylife]

I agree with you but according to the guide you could go to the interview with an expired passport. What they will do I don't know.

 

[gpattabhi]

A person has to have a passport once he/she is overseas. This is true for any country. What if a person commited a crime or something and hence could not get a new passport?
Also while entering US at POE, they stamp your passport even if you are LPR and at that time they check for validity.

 

[Ocelot]

I think it's OK

I think the guide to Naturalization can be trusted in this.

Read it (the Guide) again yourself. I would read the entire thing about once a week until you have your interview. (I can't get my wife to read it even once - and she is the applicant <sigh>)

An expired passport is OK.

My wife once entered Russia with a (sort of) Soviet passport. Strangely, she is a Ukrainian citizen, and her passport was issued in '96 - several years after the Soviet Union broke up. Because of the some ambiguity about the status of Crimea (southern province of Ukraine), the Ukrainians had not at that time distributed new blank passports to the passport office in Crimea, so her Ukrainian passport was made on a Soviet blank.

On entry to Russia with this passport in '99, she was hassled - and they told her she would have to get a new passport before she left "the country". It was not expired. A few days later, we flew to Ukraine (apparently that was not leaving "the country"), to visit her parents. Ukrainians also told her she could not leave the country without a new (with a Green cover and no hammer/sickle) passport. We had to stay an extra week to get it.

And I am thinking (can't remember clearly) that I have known people who have even travelled with an expired passport. In general, your own country will let you back in with an expired passport - maybe with some hassle, mostly to be sure that that young guy in the photo is the same guy as the old greybeard who's standing before them.

If the guide says an expired passport is OK, then I would go with that.

-Ocelot

 

[yalag]

I can't get my wife to read it even once - and she is the applicant <sigh>)

Ocelot - are my wife and your wife sisters?