Does a US passport number change upon renewal?
February 7, 2010 3:04 PM Subscribe
Will a renewed U.S. passport have the same ID number as the original?
My passport just expired and I've sent it in to have it renewed. In the meantime, I need to fill out some paperwork which requires my passport number. Will the renewed passport have the same number (ID) as the original?
My passport just expired and I've sent it in to have it renewed. In the meantime, I need to fill out some paperwork which requires my passport number. Will the renewed passport have the same number (ID) as the original?
Best answer: No, says my experience last week.
This was in the middle of applying for a visa, and neither the consulate (French) nor my employer nor the company helping arrange the visa gave me a hard time for the numbers not matching. Maybe that will help you in your paperwork anxieties, if yours are similar.
posted by whatzit at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2010
This was in the middle of applying for a visa, and neither the consulate (French) nor my employer nor the company helping arrange the visa gave me a hard time for the numbers not matching. Maybe that will help you in your paperwork anxieties, if yours are similar.
posted by whatzit at 3:41 PM on February 7, 2010
Best answer: I don't know of any country that assigns the same ID to a renewed passport. Most of the time, the ID is already preprinted in the blank passport.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:47 PM on February 7, 2010
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:47 PM on February 7, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the quick answers, even if it's not what I'd hoped for.
posted by tomwheeler at 3:53 PM on February 7, 2010
posted by tomwheeler at 3:53 PM on February 7, 2010
On the plus side, they send you back your original passport with a punch through it, so if you still need that one since you used the number on it, you can just carry that one with you, too. I ran into this problem trying to get World Cup tickets, and I plan on just bringing my old passport along with me when I show up at the box office in South Africa.
posted by i less than three nsima at 5:12 PM on February 7, 2010
posted by i less than three nsima at 5:12 PM on February 7, 2010
Definitely not.
The whole point of a passport number is to uniquely identify that particular passport. If a passport is reported as lost/stolen, its number is recorded as invalid. If you try to use an invalid passport, a screen will flash red somewhere and big burly men will be sent to taser you.
posted by randomstriker at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2010
The whole point of a passport number is to uniquely identify that particular passport. If a passport is reported as lost/stolen, its number is recorded as invalid. If you try to use an invalid passport, a screen will flash red somewhere and big burly men will be sent to taser you.
posted by randomstriker at 9:54 PM on February 7, 2010
I don't know of any country that assigns the same ID to a renewed passport. Most of the time, the ID is already preprinted in the blank passport.Singapore's machine-readable passports used to retain the same ID even on renewal; it'd be the NRIC number, a sort of unique identifier within Singapore. However, that has changed with the introduction of biometric passports, mostly a result of trying to comply with the US Visa Waiver Program.
posted by the cydonian at 2:31 AM on February 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I had to get a new one a couple of months ago and it is different than my old.
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2010