Can I use a US visa in my old Kenya passport after being issued the new East African Community passport?
Due to a directive by the Kenya government, old Kenyan passports must be converted to new East African Community passports before September 2019. The old passports will no longer be used after 01 September 2019. I applied and got a new East African Community passport.
My Kenya passport has a valid B2 visa. Do I need to get the visa transferred to new passport or can I travel with both passports to enter USA??
Best Answer
You can travel with both passports to the US. See About Visas - The Basics:
Visa Validity
My old passport has already expired. My visa to travel to the United States is still valid but in my expired passport. Do I need to apply for a new visa with my new passport?
No. 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 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 valid and the expired one with the visa) should be from the same country and type (Example: both Uruguayan regular passports, both official passports, etc.). When you arrive at the U.S. port-of-entry (POE, 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 they 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. If you do so, your visa will no longer be valid.
(emphasis added)
Let's look at the bold sentence, because there might be a question there. It says that both passports must be issued by the same country. Since Kenya's EAC passport is issued by Kenya, it is in fact from the same country. The EAC passport isn't issued by the EAC directly; rather, it is issued by Kenya as a member of the EAC.
There is an additional requirement that the passports be of the same type. That is, if the visa is in a diplomatic passport, the new passport used with the visa must also be a diplomatic passport. Unless you're traveling on government business, both of your passports will be "regular" passports. The fact that one is an EAC passport and the other isn't doesn't mean that the passports are of a different type.
Pictures about "Can I use a US visa in my old Kenya passport after being issued the new East African Community passport?"
Can you travel to the US with the old Kenyan passport?
Conversation. Clarification: US visas & non-digital Kenyan passports: U.S. visa applicants may make an appointment using old Kenyan passport but must have new e-passport before the visa can be issued. Passports must be valid for 6 months upon entry & non-digital passports expire Aug 31, 2019.How do I change my old passport to my new passport in Kenya?
Can I still use the old passport?
The Immigration Department has silently extended the December 31, 2021 deadline for the phasing out of the old generation passport. The Interior Ministry on February 4, 2021, extended the deadline to December 31, citing the Covid-19 pandemic that forced the Immigration department to scale down its operations.How long can I use my old Kenyan passport?
Starting from 1st January 2022, the old Generation passports will be null and void. And NO Kenyan will be able to travel internationally without a valid East African Community biometric E-Passport.Gov’t introduces East African E-Passport
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Images: E M, Charles Parker, Plato Terentev, Nataliya Vaitkevich