Venezuela Passport Question

[TandClaudia 330]

I have been reading and researching for a while, and I think that this site has some great members and great information.

 

I have a somewhat complicated situation and need to be pointed in the right direction.

 

My fiancée is from Venezuela.  She currently lives and works in Panama.  She has Panama residency, and we have requested her K-1 interview to be conducted at the consulate in Panama.  We recently receive our N0A1 on March 8th, 2019, so we have a bit of time to resolve this issue:

 

My fiancée's  passport has expired.  She requested a new passport, but when she did this, she said that the embassy in Panama told her that they were just now delivering passports that were requested in 2015.  😯  The embassy told her that she could get a "stamp" to extend the length of her passport, but that process takes about 9 months.  She started the process previously, paid her money, and never got notification to get her stamp.

 

Has anyone had an recent experience with obtaining a passport in Venezuela?  I understand that it is possible to get a passport within three or four days if she returns to Venezuela, and there doesn't seem to be any guarantees that she will be able to get it in that timeframe. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[BryceAndRebeca 92]

On 3/18/2019 at 9:28 AM, TandClaudia said:

I have been reading and researching for a while, and I think that this site has some great members and great information.

 

I have a somewhat complicated situation and need to be pointed in the right direction.

 

My fiancée is from Venezuela.  She currently lives and works in Panama.  She has Panama residency, and we have requested her K-1 interview to be conducted at the consulate in Panama.  We recently receive our N0A1 on March 8th, 2019, so we have a bit of time to resolve this issue:

 

My fiancée's  passport has expired.  She requested a new passport, but when she did this, she said that the embassy in Panama told her that they were just now delivering passports that were requested in 2015.  😯  The embassy told her that she could get a "stamp" to extend the length of her passport, but that process takes about 9 months.  She started the process previously, paid her money, and never got notification to get her stamp.

 

Has anyone had an recent experience with obtaining a passport in Venezuela?  I understand that it is possible to get a passport within three or four days if she returns to Venezuela, and there doesn't seem to be any guarantees that she will be able to get it in that timeframe. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Passports in and out of Venezuela take a lot of time, it will NEVER take days. From what I've heard the process to get the prorroga (stamp) it's taking quite some too. So, unless she has some kind of contact inside of SAIME that can expedite that for her it's a long shot.

[TandClaudia 330]

I will be back in Panama with her next week.  I think the best course of action would be to go to the Venezuelan Embassy in Panama with her and review our options again.  When she went to the embassy last month, they said that they were just starting to deliver passports from 2015.

 

The clock is ticking now, and this seems to be our biggest hurdle.

[Nelo G. 1]

Hey, 

 

Any luck with this? I am on the same situation with my fiancée as well.

 

Nelo

[TandClaudia 330]

11 hours ago, Nelo G. said:

Hey, 

 

Any luck with this? I am on the same situation with my fiancée as well.

 

Nelo

 

The short answer is no.  She tried again to initiate the process to get the "extension stamp" at the embassy, and they told her that the physical condition of her passport was not good enough for her to get the stamp. 

 

I read that both Panama and Colombia will allow people from Venezuela to travel in and out of those countries with an expired passport, as long as it has not been expired for more than 2 years. 

 

My fiancée is Panamanian resident now, but she was born to Colombian parents.  She has an option to get a Colombian cedula and then a passport.  Of course this involves jumping through a lot of hoops, and it presents it's own set of problems, but we're working on it.

 

Thanks for asking.  Tell me about your situation.

[Nelo G. 1]

Thank you for sharing, 

 

My fiancee had the same issue but her passport was in decent condition, I think that your best option is to continue to push to the the stamp. From what I heard they are taking longer to deliver the stamps but they do show up. 

 

Nelo

 

 

[Daniela M_______ 410]

On 4/10/2019 at 7:51 AM, TandClaudia said:

 

The short answer is no.  She tried again to initiate the process to get the "extension stamp" at the embassy, and they told her that the physical condition of her passport was not good enough for her to get the stamp. 

 

I read that both Panama and Colombia will allow people from Venezuela to travel in and out of those countries with an expired passport, as long as it has not been expired for more than 2 years. 

 

My fiancée is Panamanian resident now, but she was born to Colombian parents.  She has an option to get a Colombian cedula and then a passport.  Of course this involves jumping through a lot of hoops, and it presents it's own set of problems, but we're working on it.

 

Thanks for asking.  Tell me about your situation.

I understand better your situation now, If the consulate itself told her that her passport condition is not good enough to get a stamp, that would be hard to overcome... I'm guessing she doen't have enough room to get it stamped or maybe is it damaged.

 

If she can do the Colombian passport that will be a huge help, not only now but to avoid future inconvinience with Venezuelan IDs. I understand is a long process but I think you might have enough time to figure a solution, my Plan B was to get Mexican citizenship (I could after 2,5 years living there) but I got my extension on time so I didn't have to.

 

Join the Facebook group I told you about, they might not have a magic solution for your fiance's situation but they do share valuable information.

[TandClaudia 330]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 2:04 PM, Nelo G. said:

Thank you for sharing, 

 

My fiancee had the same issue but her passport was in decent condition, I think that your best option is to continue to push to the the stamp. From what I heard they are taking longer to deliver the stamps but they do show up. 

 

Nelo

 

 

 

The strangest thing happened.  I was with my fiancée over the weekend and I decided to start the passport renewal process from the beginning.

 

When we initiated the request for the new passport, we got a message saying that she was eligible for the prorroga, but it wouldn't let us request it via the Saime website.  I printed a screen capture of the message and told her to take it to the consulate.

 

After spending half of the day at the consulate, someone finally told her that they would "unlock" her account, allow her to apply for the prorroga, and that she should be able to get the stamp in about 2 months. 

 

We completed the request last night online and everything went through okay. 

 

Now we wait.

[TandClaudia 330]

Another update......

 

I did more research about the prorroga process, and discovered that it extends the validity of the passport by 2 years from the original date of expiration.  

It expired in August of 2017. 

[TandClaudia 330]

@Nelo G.

 

Was your fiancée able to get the prorroga?

 

[Horty 33]

Do the prorroga now so you can extend it until Aug this year. As soon as you get it do another prorroga to extend it til 2021. You can ask for more prorrogas as long as your Venezuelan passport has blank pages available. The prorroga is a sticker that occupies an entire side of a page. If you wait for a new passport you are going to have to wait years. My Fiance passport expires in Jan 2020 and we are going to renew the prorroga in July as you have to wait 6 months prior expiration to renew. Best of luck. 

[TandClaudia 330]

Thanks @Horty.  Claudia spoke with someone at the embassy and they said that her extension would be for 2 years AFTER she received the stamp (thankfully).  We applied for it on 4/22 and she was told that it takes about 2 months for it to be processed. 

 

My fingers are crossed, but we are also working on other options.  We are close to the goal line and don't want to fumble the ball waiting on SAIME. 

[Horty 33]

@TandClaudia that's great news, you should be ok with timing. My timeline is right around the same time as yours. My fiance is also from Venezuela but living in Cancun. I was born in Venezuela but been in The US most of my life. And yes Saime is a pain in the ###. Did you guys do or have to do the criminal récords antecedentes for Venezuela?

[TandClaudia 330]

@Horty We did the police certificate last week.  Based on the last digit of your cedula that determines when you can request the certificate electronically.  

[Horty 33]

@TandClaudia hi, read the news, apperantly USA and J.guiado are going to accept expired passport for another 5 Years past the expired date. Google Venezuelan passport extension.  Look at news from last couple of hours.