Integrity Legal

The administration of this blog often posts the holiday closing schedules of various United States Embassies and Consulates in the Asia-Pacific region in an effort to provide assistance to American travelers and expats or foreign nationals seeking services at an American Mission abroad. The following holiday closing schedule for the US Embassy in New Zealand was quoted directly from the official website of the Post:

Those traveling to American Missions abroad are often in search of a US Embassy or US Consulate that can assist in visa matters and other proceedings which must be carried out by US government personnel. Such activities include, but are not limited to: Consular Report of Birth Abroad issuance, US passport renewal, addition of visa pages, and notarial services. Generally, the American Citizen Services Section of a United States Consulate can assist in these matters. Those with business at an American Citizen Services post are encouraged to check the official website of the US Embassy in order to ascertain if appointments can be scheduled online. This can greatly streamline processing of requests as ACS officers can anticipate customer requests and prepare to provide appropriate services.

Those seeking a visa to the United States of America often require a visa interview in order to complete the adjudication process. Those seeking a visa interview are well advised to contact the local post or check the official website for details about appointment scheduling. Usually the protocols for non-immigrant visa interview appointments are different than the protocols for setting immigrant visa interview appointments (for purposes of visa processing, generally the K1 visa is considered to be an immigrant visa).

For related information in Thai context please see: US Visa Thailand.

Tags: American Citizen Services, American Visa, consular report of birth abroad, K1 Visa, notary services, US Consulate, US Consulate New Zealand, US Embassy, US Embassy New Zealand, us passport, US Visa, US Visa Appointment, US Visa Interview, US Visa Thailand, Visa pages
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A common misconception among Americans is the idea that a United States Citizen is only allowed to obtain one Passport. Strictly speaking, this is not true. An American Citizen may obtain a second United States passport, provided they have a valid reason for doing so.

The relevant regulations currently manifest the long held position of the American State Department that no one ought to posses more than one bona fide United States passport at any time, unless the person is expressly permitted to do so by the State Department. The State Department recognizes that there are extenuating circumstances in which it may be necessary for one US Citizen to have two passports.

Allocation of a second passport is deemed to be a special dispensation and therefore a rare exception to normal State Department protocol. For this reason, issuance of second passports will only be approved after the applicant shows a justifiable reason why the duplicate travel document should be issued. Unlike some countries that issue second passports which are restricted to certain regions, an American second passport can be utilized for traveling anywhere on the planet in the same manner as a normal US passport. However, second United States passports will only be issued with a maximum validity of two years. At one time, second passports were able to be extended. Today, the validity of second passport cannot be extended.  Should a secondary passport expire, then a new passport application must be tendered in order to receive another secondary passport.

In cases where one is curious about obtaining a second passport, first understand that this is not something that the State Department does lightly. One must show a truly compelling reason to issue a second passport. In the past, people obtained second passports with relative ease. Today, it would seem that the State Department heavily scrutinizes those seeking a second passport and will make every effort to ensure that those seeking said travel document are doing so for a legitimate reason.

The reason for the heightened caution with regard to second passports probably has something to do with the increased administrative work that likely goes into keeping track of those Citizens who have dual passports. Further, immigration offices around the world, including Thai Immigration, often use an entrant’s passport number as a reference for that person while in the country. This would not be the only reference, but the presence of two passport numbers could make clerical work more difficult.

Understand that obtaining a second passport is not the same as obtaining additional US visa pages. Many expatriates need to obtain additional visa pages due to the fact that they have used all of their visa pages while being stamped in and out of various foreign countries. As a courtesy, most United States diplomatic missions will replace visa pages free of charge.

For more information about second US passports please see this link

For more information about American Visas from Thailand please see K-1 visa Thailand

(Please note that nothing in this post should be taken as legal advice. Please consult an attorney before making any legal decisions. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this post.)

Tags: passport, Second Passport, Second US Passport, US Stat Department, US Visa, Visa pages
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