Passport Renewals and Updates

Foreign citizens wishing to enter the United States must obtain a valid passport on which a legal U.S. visa must be stamped. While a visa is an endorsement on a passport that permits a holder to enter a foreign country, a passport is a travel document that must be presented in order to gain access into a foreign country. A U.S. passport, which is issued by the government through the U.S. Department of State, is a world recognized document that serves as an individual’s identification & U.S. citizenship. Since the United States Government allows an individual to hold dual citizenship, some U.S citizens use a different citizenship from that of the U.S. However, holding a second passport as well as dual citizenship has its pros and cons. It is not to say that it’s way better than holding only that of the U.S. It might interest you to know that individuals having dual citizenship will neither find it difficult nor frustrating to renew the passport.

It’s possible for an individual to use a valid U.S. passport to enter many other countries. Individuals whose passport has been reportedly lost, damaged, stolen, altered and even mutilated should apply for a new United States passport without delay. In fact, persons whose names have changed also fall into this category. All these are concrete reasons that require a United States passport replacement. Individuals should anticipate passport renewals some weeks prior to their trips. Absolute care needs to be taken while undergoing the passport renewal process because a slight and otherwise simple mistake could slow the issuance of your new passport. Since several processes are involved when applying for a U.S. passport renewal, applicants are advised to make use of the Renewal Guide as details of application, renewal and replacement processes are contained therein.

Expired passports have many consequences and hence, should also be of high importance. Once your passport expires in the course of a journey, you will not gain entry into other countries and as such becomes a grave source of concern. It should be noted that most countries require individuals with valid visas of not less than 6 months from the entry date into the country. Besides that, some countries do not accept expired passports as valid citizenship. With an expired passport, you may also encounter difficulties returning to the U.S. The United States Immigration Support neither submits applications in the best interests of applicant nor issues passports. It is only the responsibility of the Department of States to issue passports.