Going back home (non-U.S.) on an expired passport?

[cjtowerman 0]

Short version: If a non-U.S. citizen with a valid U.S. visa and U.S. green card has their non-U.S. passport expire while they are in the U.S., is their visa safe, and are they permitted to go back home on a OW (or RT) air ticket, at which point they get a new passport and later return to the U.S. or does the passport itself play a role in the legality of their stay in the U.S.?

Long version: a friend’s wife is Honduran. She is in the U.S. legally on a marriage visa, has a currently valid passport with visa, and green card. The U.S. recently clamped down on Honduras for a lack of controls in Honduran passport security. As of September 2006, all Hondurans in the U.S. who need a renewed or new passport, are not allowed to do so by mail with their Embassy or Consulate. Everything must be done in person, because all applicants must be photographed & fingerprinted for passport renewals and new issuances of passports. Since Honduras is a poor country with few consulates in the U.S., this means people must travel great distances, buying air tickets and paying for hotels, to acquire a passport which is quite inexpensive in their home country. My friend’s wife is in rural Wyoming; she has medical problems which are expensive and the added travel expense would be a serious hardship. The closest/cheapest Honduran Consulate to her is Houston or Chicago. The cost of renewing her passport, with a RT ticket for her and her husband (her English is limited, and for medical problems she cannot travel alone), with hotels and taxis and the off-site passport fee, will exceed $1350.00 If she were in Honduras, the passport would cost about $65. The passport expires 12/16/06. The Honduran consulate claims she must renew the passport in person, period - no exceptions; they are unsure what happens if it expires while she is here, and she needs to go back to Honduras (they should know, but do not, and will not confirm or deny anything). She has a free trip back to Honduras in May, 2007, 6 months after her passport will expire. She is tempted to let it expire...

The questions are: (a) Can she go to her home country on a expired passport if her country/national airline does not object - or is this illegal via U.S. travel regulations? (b) Her U.S. visa is in the passport, so would that expire when the passport does, even though the visa hasn’t the same date as the passport? © Her old passport has her fingerprint in it; this was scanned by the U.S. consul in Honduras, when she got her marriage visa. At that time they then fingerprinted her with the new digital print post-9/11 technology (this was 2005). The U.S. Embassy compared the new print to the old one in the passport, put both in a State Dept. file, and approved the visa. Why does she need to be fingerprinted a third time, now, to renew a passport? Is there any chance this requirement exists only for people who got there passport before 9/11 and have never been digitally fingerprinted with the 9/11 technology? The Honduran consuls in the U.S. are morons (basic lawyers living abroad, collectively a big political salary, and knowing nothing, etc.).

Her health is expected to be vastly improved by January, 2007. She could go back to Honduras in May, and spend 6-16 weeks there, get a new passport, and have a lot money left over, rather than pay $1k+ to go to Chicago, just to take a photo and get a digital fingerprint. Anyone know what happens if the passport expires, or if she has other options which seem less risky?

[john_and_marlene 162]

She can't use an expired passport for travel. She'll either have to go and have it renewed or not travel international.

[dmartmar 1]

A valid US Visa + a valid US Green Card = a valid US passport

The Honduran passport she only used/needed to

a) get her into the country legally and eventually a GC

Mission Accomplished.

If anything, all she would have to do is renew it when she goes back home, BEFORE returning.

The passport is just for entering purposes. The GC is for residence purposes.

Edited October 17, 2006 by dmartmar

[desert_fox 32]

The US could care less. Her problems would be trying to enter Honduras on an expired passport, as they may not admit her. Her other problems will be with the airline employees who would not want to board her on an expired passport as the airline would be responsible for bringing her back to the US if she is refused admission into Honduras. Get it renewed.

[Kez/JWolf 6]

The airlines will notlet her fly with an expired passport...... the visa in the passport is no use anymore and she does not need it... she has a greencard this allows her entry to the US not the old visa...

Kezzie

[Yodrak 7]

cjtowerman,

The visa is not relevant, the woman is an LPR and as such has no need for a US visa in her present circumstances.

Yodrak

Short version: If a non-U.S. citizen with a valid U.S. visa and U.S. green card has their non-U.S. passport expire while they are in the U.S., is their visa safe, and are they permitted to go back home on a OW (or RT) air ticket, at which point they get a new passport and later return to the U.S. or does the passport itself play a role in the legality of their stay in the U.S.?

....

Edited October 17, 2006 by Yodrak

[cjtowerman 0]

The US could care less. Her problems would be trying to enter Honduras on an expired passport, as they may not admit her. Her other problems will be with the airline employees who would not want to board her on an expired passport as the airline would be responsible for bringing her back to the US if she is refused admission into Honduras. Get it renewed.

If the people on the telephone are correct today, the U.S. does care, in that acording to Security at the Denver Airport, they would not pass her through using an expired passport, since it is expired, it is not a valid id for HS and others. Since she is Honduran, Honduran immigration would not reject her upon arrival since she does not need a Honduran passport to enter Honduras (not even by air), and she has a Honduran National Identity card. It is unclear if she could do as a Honduran lawyer recommended = toss out the expired passport before leaving, pass U.S. security using the "green card", board the TACA place with Honduran documentation, and pass Honduran immigration using the national i.d. and birth certificate, then get a new Honduras passport once back in Honduras. She will not be able to renew it this year, since for medical reasons she has been informed she cannot travel until 2007. She might be able to get a new Honduran passport in the U.S. in 2007, but that would come with the same insanely high costs. Personally, it all sounds too ricky to me, but she will not be able to renew it before 12/16, and will have to live with the consequences of that, assuming it is true that you cannot renew a Honduran passport by mail due to some new U.S. passport requirement, of which I cannot find any documentation - but none of the Honduran consulates will renew it by mail.