Visa in other passport 

Never try to remove the visa from your old passport and stick it into the new valid passport. If you do, your visa will no longer be valid and you will have to reapply.

Q: My old passport has already expired. My visa to travel to the United States is still valid but it is in my expired passport. Do I need to apply for a new visa with my new passport? I don’t want to have any trouble when I travel, but I also don’t want to have to spend the time and money on a new visa if I don’t need it.

A: Not a problem at all. If your visa is still valid you can travel to the United States with your two passports, as long as the visa is valid (not expired), not damaged, and is the appropriate type of visa required for your principal purpose of travel. (Example: tourist visa, when your principal purpose of travel is tourism). Both passports (the new one and the old one with the visa) should be from the same country and type (Example: both are Jamaican regular passports, or both are official passports).

When you arrive at the US port-of-entry (generally an airport or land border) the Customs and Border Protection Immigration Officer will check your visa in the old passport and, if s/he decides to admit you into the United States, will stamp your new passport with an admission stamp along with the annotation ‘VIOPP’ (visa in other passport).

Do not try to remove the visa from your old passport and stick it into the new valid passport! Yes, people have tried to do this! If you do so, your visa will no longer be valid and you will have to apply again.

So, take both passports on your trip, and enjoy your travels!

Reminder

Your appointment time is your arrival time, NOT your interview time. Please do not show up earlier than your appointment time.

You can find more information about how to travel to the US on our website,

www.kingston.usembassy.gov and the website of our authorised service provider at

www.usvisa-info.com. Keep on top of embassy news on our

Facebook page,

www.facebook.com/pages/USEmbassy-Jamaica, and by following

@USEmbassyJA on

Twitter. We also answer general visa questions on our

Facebook and

Twitter pages.

The embassy staff in Kingston will answer questions you may have regarding the US Mission, including consular law, regulations and/or practice. In order to respect privacy, staff will not answer questions about specific visa applications. The embassy employs a visa appointment system, so it is only necessary for visa applicants to arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment. Send your questions to: