Renewing (CAN) Passport with F-1 Visa

[MKMB 0]

I am Canadian, attending school in the states on an F-1 Visa. My passport is about to expire and I need to renew it by sending it in the mail back to Canada, but I don't know what will happen to the visa inside. Has anyone had to do this before?

[Inky 1,110]

The old passport is canceled the visa is no longer usable because the passport is canceled. You can get the old passport back and it will still have the visa in it.

I renewed mine with my K-1 visa in it and got it back with the K-1 still in it. But its all voided including the passport.

Since your visa is an F-1 i'm not sure what you would need to do for that part since you need to have the visa in a valid passport.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Inky

[cdneh 3,112]

I'm from Canada, and was living in New Zealand. Every time my passport expired, I would send it off to Wellington NZ for a new one, and request the old one be returned. They cut the corner of the cover in the front, and returned the old one.

Once I had them both back, I took both the old and new passports to the NZ Immigration office, and they would put a new Returning Resident Visa in the replacement passport. That has to be kept current as well.

I would think it would be a similar sort of thing here, I'm just not sure where you would go to have that done. Perhaps you need to call USCIS to check out what needs to be done.

I did find this on the USA Embassy in Ottawa website.

Valid Visa in an Expired Passport

My U.S. visa is valid, but it's in my expired passport. Do I need a new visa in my new passport?

Under 22 CFR 41.112(3), you can enter the United States with a valid visa in an expired passport provided that you also have in your possession a valid passport that is of the same nationality as the expired passport that contains the unexpired visa.

When you travel, carry your current passport together with the old one that contains the valid visa. Do not tear out, peel off, or otherwise remove the visa from the old passport to try to put it in your new passport as this will invalidate the visa. If your country's embassy or consulate did not return your old passport when it issued your new one, then you will need to apply for a new visa.

[Harsh_77 718]

Most embassy return the old passport back either with stamp cancelled on it or corners are clipped. Also not sure about CA, but India also puts the expired passports number in the comment section on the new passport so they can be linked to the same person.

If your F1 is still valid beyound your passports expiration you might have to visit embassy and ask them to restamp it on your new passport.