Travelling back home with an expired passport

[B'sA 0]

HI!

I hope someone could help me with my question.

I am a conditional green card holder and my moldovan passport expired, but i am planning to go home soon.

I know about my options in the matter of getting a new passport, but is there a way around it?

Could i just use the travelling title issued by the moldovan embassy in USA to go home and use a re-entry permit to come back to the states without a passport?

Thank you so much!

[JERIII 8]

I don't have that much experience with this, but I know you can return to Moldova with an expired passport using the travel document that the embassy will issue. However, I am fairly sure that you will need to get a new passport in Moldova in order to return to the US.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

If the airline people do their job, you will not be allowed to board a plane with an expired passport as this would violate US and international laws.

You will have to get a new passport from within the US before you can travel internationally again.

In regard to entering the US again, you will use your Green Card and your passport. I'm not sure how you got to the "reentry permit" unless you are planing on being away for a year or longer.

[B'sA 0]

If the airline people do their job, you will not be allowed to board a plane with an expired passport as this would violate US and international laws.

You will have to get a new passport from within the US before you can travel internationally again.

Ok, here's some clarification for someone who might be in my position, i just found it on-line: You can only be admited to the US with a reentry permit instead of a passport if you are "stateles". That is if you're a refugee, asylee or something like that.. Other than that a passport will be required.

As about "the airline people doing their job"- there's an official document that embassies issue to people who are in a foreign country and have damaged, expired or lost passport in order for them to be able to return to their country.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

Ok, here's some clarification for someone who might be in my position, i just found it on-line: You can only be admited to the US with a reentry permit instead of a passport if you are "stateles". That is if you're a refugee, asylee or something like that.. Other than that a passport will be required.

As about "the airline people doing their job"- there's an official document that embassies issue to people who are in a foreign country and have damaged, expired or lost passport in order for them to be able to return to their country.

I know what a stateless person is.

I don't know how Moldovia handles this, but a travel document as a means to go "home" is usually only issued by embassies and consulates for people who need to go home ASAP.

Your home, however, is the United States of America, as you are a PERMANENT lawful RESIDENT of the US. You are home. You are not a tourist who lost his passport and needs to go home to his family and his job. You have the luxury to wait until a new passport has been issued to you. Once that's done, you can travel internationally again. This is how it's handled by any country I know.

[JERIII 8]

My wife is Moldovan, and one of her friends is an Moldovan LPR who just went through this.

The embassy in DC issued a travel document which she used to return to Moldova. She got her new passport there.

I think the reason that they did this was so that she did not have to go to the embassy/consulate. At any rate, the

embassy suggested this and she got the document without much trouble. There was no emergency.

As in all cases like this, try to call the embassy. Do what they say.

[JoannaV 173]

Your home, however, is the United States of America, as you are a PERMANENT lawful RESIDENT of the US. You are home. You are not a tourist who lost his passport and needs to go home to his family and his job. You have the luxury to wait until a new passport has been issued to you. Once that's done, you can travel internationally again. This is how it's handled by any country I know.

It appears Moldova often allows its citizens to obtain a travel document.

But other than that, countries and airlines can be more flexible than we might expect. I recently (somehow) took my old (maiden name and had been cancelled by having the corner cut off) passport to the airport. After some frantic conniving between the airline and the British consulate I was allowed to travel. Apparently, had my passport been expired (rather than not-expired but stopped using before I became a US resident) there would have been no problem at all.