Hi new here, passport issues

[0scarsama 0]

Hi, long time lurker and grateful for all the help this page and community has help us in our process to get a Permanent Residence on the US.

So far our process has gone smoothly, and a few days back we got our invoice to pay for the AOS and the IV at the CEAC page, we already made the payments and while gathering my documents ready to send them I realized that somehow my passport has really dark brown stains, my passport got wet a few months ago and I was very careful to dry it and clean it, and when it was dry and smooth I put it on a safe place, but I guess some kind of mold or bacteria grew in the darkness of my filing cabinet leaving those awful stains.

The thing here is that I don't know how this affects the process since I definitely have to replace my damaged passport and get a new one, which will have a new Passport Number, different from the one we have already used on some parts of the process.

I can't find any info about changing passports during the process, and I'm so afraid that we have to redo something or this will hinder our progress, even when we are so close to get an interview date.

Does anyone have any info, or can point me on the right direction....

Thank you so much... my wife is so angry at me, so I hope this is not that serious...

PD I attached a picture for you to see how the damage looks like, the page that contains my info, looks similar, but more spread...

[Carla V 43]

I would go to get another issued, dont know which state you are but I went to San Antonio Consulate and got it the same day of my appointment. Keep the stained one and in thus part I will need someone to correct me if Im wrong but I think that with a simple explanation letter on your appointment date for Aos and both passports you would be ok

Hold, are you in the US already or still in Mexico???

[0scarsama 0]

I would go to get another issued, dont know which state you are but I went to San Antonio Consulate and got it the same day of my appointment. Keep the stained one and in thus part I will need someone to correct me if Im wrong but I think that with a simple explanation letter on your appointment date for Aos and both passports you would be ok

Hold, are you in the US already or still in Mexico???

No, I'm still in Mexico, she, my wife, is the US citizen, getting the new passport is not a problem, I live in Tamaulipas, so, plenty of offices here.

I have to get a new one, even for Mexico's standards, a water damaged passport is not valid.

I have all my previous passports and I'll do the explanatory letter for the AOS (Affidavit of Support) not the Adjustment of Status lol (lost in translation)

What I don't know is if I have now to send copies from the 2 passports, the one damaged used at the beginning of the process and the new one, which will have the same information but a new passport number, and explain in a letter that we changed the passport due water damage?.... And if in doing this, the process gets sidetracked or stop or some steps have to be done again?

thanks for the answer =)

[Carla V 43]

In my case for the K1 visa I just needed my passport to schedule the interview in Juarez, if you need to use it, for example for sending copies to NVC part of the process, you can always include both copies and explanation letter, if they dont ask for it, use it just to schedule your inteview and for the interview itself, just keep a copy of both and I think everything would be ok

[0scarsama 0]

In my case for the K1 visa I just needed my passport to schedule the interview in Juarez, if you need to use it, for example for sending copies to NVC part of the process, you can always include both copies and explanation letter, if they dont ask for it, use it just to schedule your inteview and for the interview itself, just keep a copy of both and I think everything would be ok

Thanks, that's reassuring, I've spent all morning trying to find some official procedure or explanation without success ... My wife is going to call someone at the NVC to see if they know how to precede, I'll updated if I find something else, or they give us guidelines for this issue.

[0scarsama 0]

Here with the Update

I called the NVC number and they gave me the following information.

The lady on the phone told me that first I needed to check if the damaged passport was legible, that if I was able to read the information on the document's photocopy it would be enough to continue the process, but that didn't meant that my damaged passport was still valid. She stated that, that was for the Mexican Authorities to validate.

I told her that a damaged passport was not valid in Mexico, so she told me "you need a new one", at which I ask her about starting the process with one passport number and ending with another.

She told me that as long as I had a valid passport that would not be an issue, that I could state in a letter the change and at the Interview present both, the new one and the old one, with the last being clearly canceled.

She recommended that if I was to get a new passport, it was better to wait for the new one before sending the Affidavit of Support and the IV package, so that way we will avoid any misinterpretation at the time of the interview in Juarez.

So I got a date for the passport, they made the process as if I was getting the passport for the first time, although this is my third one, because that is the way the law tells them to do it, in case of damage or loss.

The process is well known, you have to produce several documents, copies, pictures and fees, one local and one federal, and a week later I have my new passport ready to keep on going with the last steps.