Renew Passport & KITAS - need some advice

[gemima]

My current passport (Irish) is nearly full - I have 2.5 visa pages left. It is not due for renewal until 2025 (this becomes important further on). My KITAS is up for renewal and the agent will want to have it sometime in August.

Irish passports worldwide are processed centrally in Dublin. They are fast to renew (1 or 2 weeks) so no complaints with the actual service BUT because my PP is not within 1 year of expiry I have to send them my current PP for them to cancel it (AND THEY WONT GUARANTEE THEY WILL SEND IT BACK TO ME...).

I'm leaning into just going with the process and sending off my PP next week and hoping they send me back the old one before I need it in August (I can attach a begging letter to it so the admin person hopefully takes note and does me a favor). It makes me incredibly uncomfortable that I will have no PP but I have no choice. I've contacted the Irish embassy and they told me to do that.

I need to get a clear answer from my KITAS Agent (he so far has been vague). What happens if you come up to renew your KITAS and the old PP is gone (stolen OR like me held by my Country - which is within their rights as it belongs to them)?
Has anyone on the forum had this experience? Am I overthinking all this (wouldn't be unusual for me!)?

 

[SamR]

I would suggest the following if you’re uncertain if you have doubts about Irish Embassy. Renew the Kitas as normal and then renew your passport once the Kitas process is over. The thing is that once your new passport is issued, there will be the additional immigration hassle of doing a mutasi paspor. The mutasi paspor is when they change the passport number that your immigration details are registered to.

 

[snpark]

Not true
A colour clear photocopy of EVERY page is accepted also

 

[snpark]

Same as British English etc

 

[gemima]

I would suggest the following if you’re uncertain if you have doubts about Irish Embassy. Renew the Kitas as normal and then renew your passport once the Kitas process is over. The thing is that once your new passport is issued, there will be the additional immigration hassle of doing a mutasi paspor. The mutasi paspor is when they change the passport number that your immigration details are registered to.

Yeah - i didnt want to complicate my post with lots of info - I have no travel plans until after my KITAS renewal BUT after it I have travel plans to-from countries that are stamp happy (work obligations and personal trips). I don't really want to wait till after I get the PP back.
Its not about doubts linked to the Irish embassy (they are all perfectly nice there!) - they literally are not involved in my PP renewal - I have to DHL my own PP back to Dublin.

 

[gemima]

Not true
A colour clear photocopy of EVERY page is accepted also

Is this for the KITAS renewal? My Agent finally came back telling me not to worry - that i can get a letter from my embassy to explain why I have no PP when I come to renew (I'm not sure the embassy will actually do that but he seems confident).
I was going to photocopy every page before I shipped the damn thing off on Monday anyway - but good to know the copy might come to some use down the line.

 

[centurion]

My current passport (Irish) is nearly full - I have 2.5 visa pages left. It is not due for renewal until 2025 (this becomes important further on). My KITAS is up for renewal and the agent will want to have it sometime in August.

Irish passports worldwide are processed centrally in Dublin. They are fast to renew (1 or 2 weeks) so no complaints with the actual service BUT because my PP is not within 1 year of expiry I have to send them my current PP for them to cancel it (AND THEY WONT GUARANTEE THEY WILL SEND IT BACK TO ME...).

I'm leaning into just going with the process and sending off my PP next week and hoping they send me back the old one before I need it in August (I can attach a begging letter to it so the admin person hopefully takes note and does me a favor). It makes me incredibly uncomfortable that I will have no PP but I have no choice. I've contacted the Irish embassy and they told me to do that.

I need to get a clear answer from my KITAS Agent (he so far has been vague). What happens if you come up to renew your KITAS and the old PP is gone (stolen OR like me held by my Country - which is within their rights as it belongs to them)?
Has anyone on the forum had this experience? Am I overthinking all this (wouldn't be unusual for me!)?

You will take an emergency passport from your embassy, and move the KITAS or KITAP to it, when your new passport comes you will move that KITAS/KITAP again to the new passport.

This is under the condition that your embassy can issue emergency passports.

I think it is a crime if you cannot present a passport-check the Immigration Law. I am not sure that you can renew KITAS without a passport present in the country and submitted to Immigration.

 

[snpark]

Is this for the KITAS renewal? My Agent finally came back telling me not to worry - that i can get a letter from my embassy to explain why I have no PP when I come to renew (I'm not sure the embassy will actually do that but he seems confident).
I was going to photocopy every page before I shipped the damn thing off on Monday anyway - but good to know the copy might come to some use down the line.

No. For passport renewal

Usually at VFS passport renewal for Brits they physically check your passport against every copy page then return it and send 48 pages of copy with the application.

For kitas renewal they keep and need the actual passport so make sure you have a good agent and don't need to travel for a few weeks

 

[gemima]

No. For passport renewal

Usually at VFS passport renewal for Brits they physically check your passport against every copy page then return it and send 48 pages of copy with the application.

For kitas renewal they keep and need the actual passport so make sure you have a good agent and don't need to travel for a few weeks

I have asked the embassy and called the PP office and both told me I have to send back the old PP (because its more than 1 year before it expires). The process seems to be very different from the UK office. I can try to send the photocopy and send a nice letter begging them to accept that and see what happens....
My agent seems to be good - he usually has my PP for 2 weeks and works ahead of time (my KITAS is up for renewal in September so I do have time on my side).
THANKS everyone for the advice!

 

[jstar]

Did you check with your agent how many blank pages you’d need? I remember that 2, 3, 4 and 6 were mentioned before as requirement. Perhaps not bad just to go ahead with the new ITAS first. I would never take the chance of not getting my old PP back with the existing ITAS/P, and not having one would make me nervous esp. with possible family emergencies. I also will request a new one but during a trip home.

 

[flavus]

If only the embassy can vouch that the passport is almost full, so you don't have to send the old passport back... but I guess corner cases like this (expat who travels a lot) was not considered when the passport office decided on the current workflow.

Good luck!

 

[manish]

Sorry for hijacking your thread @gemima , but I have a slightly similar case. My first year of KITAS is going to expire on November 28, 2023, and my passport is going to expire on April 7, 2025. As per the rule, I need to have 18 months of validity left in my passport to renew for 1 year of KITAS, but I am short with 40 days. So in this case, will they give me relaxation, or will I need a new passport to get my KITAS renewed? Has anyone faced this situation?

The second case is that I can renew my passport in Bali, and they confirmed to me that they will give me back my old passport, which has an ITAS stamp on it. But next month I am going back to my country, and I am thinking of renewing the passport there as it's near my home and will be convenient for me while going back and forth to Bali for renewing the passport. Now the issue is that when my father inquired to the passport office whether they would give me back my old passport, they didn't give surety and said it depended upon case to case, so if I didn't get my old passport back, my current ITAS would become invalid or it would be still valid as I don't have the old passport and I would only have a fresh new passport with me. Kindly shed some light on it.

 

[gemima]

Sorry for hijacking your thread @gemima , but I have a slightly similar case. My first year of KITAS is going to expire on November 28, 2023, and my passport is going to expire on April 7, 2025. As per the rule, I need to have 18 months of validity left in my passport to renew for 1 year of KITAS, but I am short with 40 days. So in this case, will they give me relaxation, or will I need a new passport to get my KITAS renewed? Has anyone faced this situation?

The second case is that I can renew my passport in Bali, and they confirmed to me that they will give me back my old passport, which has an ITAS stamp on it. But next month I am going back to my country, and I am thinking of renewing the passport there as it's near my home and will be convenient for me while going back and forth to Bali for renewing the passport. Now the issue is that when my father inquired to the passport office whether they would give me back my old passport, they didn't give surety and said it depended upon case to case, so if I didn't get my old passport back, my current ITAS would become invalid or it would be still valid as I don't have the old passport and I would only have a fresh new passport with me. Kindly shed some light on it.

When they say they may not give back your old passport I think they are just covering their arse and in 99% of cases they do give it back. I dont know what country you are from but that seems to be the case in Ireland anyway - they just wont guarantee to send it back.

 

[manish]

When they say they may not give back your old passport I think they are just covering their arse and in 99% of cases they do give it back. I dont know what country you are from but that seems to be the case in Ireland anyway - they just wont guarantee to send it back.

I too hope they give it back, and I am from India, not Ireland.
What if they don't give me back and I have only a new passport? Will my current KITAS be valid?

 

[SamR]

I too hope they give it back, and I am from India, not Ireland.
What if they don't give me back and I have only a new passport? Will my current KITAS be valid?

For sure you have to do a mutasi paspor. By going through this, the immigration details including your Kitas number will now be registered to the new passport.

What I have no idea about is what if you're no longer in possession of your old passport when you want to do a mutasi paspor because that's one of the documents that they ask for (both original and photocopy)?

 

[snpark]

They always return the old passport with the corner cut and you just show that with the new one when you land and later transfer the visa across

 

[jstar]

They always return the old passport with the corner cut

From Ireland? Guaranteed?

 

[snpark]

I think most if not all return the original passport especially for expat because have Visa etc inside.
Imagine you have a 10 year US visa and you need to renew your passport

Your visa is still valid only the passport expired right?

 

[manish]

I think most if not all return the original passport especially for expat because have Visa etc inside.
Imagine you have a 10 year US visa and you need to renew your passport

Your visa is still valid only the passport expired right?

Yeah, that's a good point. Thanks. Now I am a little relieved.

 

[snpark]

They clip the back cover corner to show its expired cancelled etc