Will my permanent resident visa be transferred to my new passport?

August 20, 2007 7:43 AM

Will my permanent resident visa be transferred to my new passport?

I am in the UK as a permanent resident, and I have the little sticker in my US passport to prove it.

However, my passport expires next May, and I'm incredibly paranoid that when I do renew my passport, the permanent residency visa won't be with it.

The US Embassy website says nothing about it, and the UK Visas, Borders and Immigration Agency, and Home Office seem to be more concerned about immigrants getting in than helping current residents.

I realise this is incrediblyimm irrational, but can someone just reassure me that, yes, I will have my permanent residency sticker, and that, no, I won't be deported the next time I travel?

posted by Katemonkey to Law & Government (16 answers total)

Pedantfilter: Sorry about the "incrediblyimm irrational".
posted by Katemonkey at 7:47 AM on August 20, 2007

You'll be fine. In the worst case you'll carry both passports around, stapled together (my wife, a Brazilian citizen, had to do this after she renewed her passport but was still in the US on her visa).
posted by jozxyqk at 7:53 AM on August 20, 2007

Yep, it's ok. Just keep your old passport and present it with your new one on entering the UK. They write 'VIPP' (Visa in Previous Passport) next to your stamp in the new passport.
posted by randomination at 7:58 AM on August 20, 2007

Well, I googled and found a few other people worrying about the same issue, but they seem to be ok in the end; see here. They're canadian, but hope it helps somehow.
posted by jacalata at 8:00 AM on August 20, 2007

You need to renew your passport, and then send in both passports to the homeoffice immigration deparment with a letter stating you want the visa transferred to the new passport, which should take a week or so.

If you don't want to go through the hassle just carry around both passports.
posted by gadha at 8:14 AM on August 20, 2007

I will assume you mean you have "indefinite leave to remain." You will either need to keep carrying around your old passport, or apply to have the stamp transferred to the new one (see the information about NTLOC at BIA Application Forms).

It costs £160 to do this by post, or you can pay £500 to do it in person in Croydon. The good news is that the U.S. Embassy is very fast, despite the passport crunch in the U.S. right now.

If you plan to do any traveling, try to renew your passport before November since some countries can be iffy about passports with less than six months validity left.

Checking was sensible, not irrational.
posted by grouse at 8:24 AM on August 20, 2007

are those prices right?! i don't ever remember paying anything like that much for visa related stuff in the uk (on my screen at least they read 160 and 500 pounds sterling).
posted by andrew cooke at 10:13 AM on August 20, 2007

wow. it really is that much - it's in the form. sorry for the noise.
posted by andrew cooke at 10:25 AM on August 20, 2007

Yes, the increased the prices to extortionate levels a couple of years ago. Considering that their target for making 90 percent of visa decisions is 14 weeks the £500 is truly extortionate.

Welcome back, andrew cooke.
posted by grouse at 10:31 AM on August 20, 2007

Also: you can only carry around your stamp in your old passport as long as it is the one *immediately preceding* your current passport. When your current non-stamped passport expires (or if you lose it, or change your name, etc.), you'll have to pay to have the stamp transferred into your new one.

But by then you'll probably be a citizen anyway ;)
posted by wayward vagabond at 2:59 PM on August 20, 2007

Grouse, as far as I know, they don't charge to transfer an ILR to a new passport. An ILR costs somewhere in the region of £700 to get first off, but transfers are free.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:09 PM on August 20, 2007

Oh, and UK Yankee is a good place to ask these kind of questions as there are immigration lawyers and lots of US expats on there.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:10 PM on August 20, 2007

Shit, no, my mistake, just looked at the form, and it is that much.

Well, they didn't used to charge. Bugger, that's bad news, my wife will be getting her ILR in a year and a half. Yet another charge, woohoo.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:14 PM on August 20, 2007

I'm in jozxyqk's wife's position - I have a valid US visa on an expired passport. There's a stamp next to the visa referring to the new passport, and I just travel with both of them. I think I have a Malaysian PR stamp on the old passport too but I'm not certain. I just came back from the US today - they never seemed to mind.
posted by divabat at 1:33 AM on August 21, 2007

and yes, US and UK are two different countries, but I don't think it would be a big problem if you just travel with both passports. My sister managed to have her passport (with all her stamps, inc. the PR one) stolen JUST BEFORE she reached British citizenship, and she got it anyway.
posted by divabat at 1:34 AM on August 21, 2007

I had mine transfered for free, September 2001. But the world changed around then. Mine has an ILR stamp and then it is written "as endorsed in previous ppt".
posted by sagwalla at 2:57 AM on August 21, 2007