My passport is only good for four months after my arrival date and my visa will be good after it expires. How can I keep using my visa after getting a new passport? Hello, To answer your question directly, no, you cannot enter Switzerland before your visa is good. [adsense]To provide a more implicitly response [...]
Published on April 15, 2011
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My passport is only good for four months after my arrival date and my visa will be good after it expires. How can I keep using my visa after getting a new passport?
Hello,
To answer your question directly, no, you cannot enter Switzerland before your visa is good.
[adsense]To provide a more implicitly response that other travelers may be able to use, many countries demand that your passport be valid for at least 6 months after your proposed entry date into a county. In your case, your passport will expire three months after the date your visa starts, so this is three months too short. It is a crap shoot whether this will impact your ability to enter the country, and you could (though I strongly doubt it) be denied entry.
In terms of your visa, if it is still valid after the date your passport expires, traveling with both the new passport and the old, expired passport (which has the still valid visa in it) should be acceptable — just be sure to show both to exit immigration.
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Original question about traveling with a soon to expire passport
My passport is valid till 19th sept.11 & my visa is valid for 18th June 11 may I able to book a ticket to zurich in may 2011
About the Author: VBJ
I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. VBJ has written 3704 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.
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1 comment… add one
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August 27, 2011, 8:38 pm
LinkThis traveller should 1) get themself a new passport: many countries require that passport be valid at least 6 months after entry; and 2) keep the old passport for the visa, travel with both the old and the new passports and when asked to, produce the visa in the old passport.
When getting the new passport, if your country requires the passport to be invalidated, that the visa page doesn’t get stamped or punched through. This is a standard requirement, and the authorities are known to honor it.
I travelled carrying a new passport and an old passport with expired visa together, for trips to the US and to the EU, and it worked perfectly.
If you want to double-check, call the embassy of the destination country prior to travel and ask just this. They will confirm. It happens very often and they will know it.
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