Adult passports are valid for 10 years after they are issued. Depending on the country, travel visas can also be good for many years as well. Unfortunately, the expiration date on your travel visas is unlikely to coincide with the expiration date on your passport. What do you do if you have valid travel visas in an expired passport?<\/p>\n
Every country’s rules are a little bit different, so the answer to that question depends on the type of visa that’s in your passport and the regulations of the country that issued it. With that disclaimer out of the way: Most of the time, you can still travel on a valid visa that’s in an expired passport.<\/p>\n
However, you can’t travel on an expired passport at all. To make this work, you would need to apply for a passport renewal, then take both your new, valid passport and your old, expired passport with the visa in it when you travel.<\/p>\n
The advantage of carrying both passports is that you don’t have to go through the hassle of applying for a new visa. You also don’t have to pay for a new visa. However, there are a couple of disadvantages as well. First, you’ll have two passports to keep track of. Losing either one means potentially being stranded in a foreign country while you get either a new passport or a new visa, depending on which passport you lost.<\/p>\n
Another concern is that when you renew your passport by mail, your old passport usually doesn’t come back to you in the same envelope as your new passport-and that second envelope, the one with your old passport in it, often comes back a good deal later than the envelope with the new passport. This could pose a problem if you’re on a tight schedule.<\/p>\n
Some countries do offer another choice: having your existing visa transferred to your new passport. That way, you’ll only have one passport to keep track of. However, many countries don’t offer this option, and you’ll have to send in both the old passport and the new passport to get your visa transferred.<\/p>\n
Whether you choose to get your visa transferred, apply for a new visa, or simply carry both passports, RushMyPassport can help expedite your passport for processing times as low as 24 hours. The experts at our sister site, RushMyTravelVisa, can also answer any questions you might have about the necessary travel visas <\/a>for your trip.<\/p>\n