Installment Eighty-Five
Q: What documents are required for Guyanese nationals to travel to the U.S.?
Guyanese nationals are required to have a valid unexpired Guyanese passport with at least six months validity, and a valid visa to travel to the U.S. If you are applying for a U.S. visa your passport should be in good condition and have enough blank pages to place the visa. In order to place a visa in the passport, the laminate covering the biographic data page and photograph must not be peeling or lifting off the page. Please Note: U.S. Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) and U.S. citizens have different documentation requirements.
Q: What documents are required for U.S. LPRs to travel to the U.S.?
U.S. LPRs should travel in and out of the United States on their Alien Registration Card (Form I-551, aka “greencard”), issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. LPR’s also need to present a valid passport for entry into Guyana and airlines may deny boarding to LPR’s traveling without a passport. Therefore, LPR’s should travel with a valid passport and Alien Registration Card to and from the United States.
Please Note: In order to maintain your status as an LPR, you cannot remain outside of the U.S. for more than one year unless you have applied for a re-entry permit from the Department of Homeland Security before leaving the United States. Persons who have been outside of the U.S. for more than one year and wish to return to the U.S. should contact the U.S. Embassy.
Q: What documents are required for a U.S. citizen to travel to the U.S.?
All U.S. citizens traveling by air, including Guyanese born, naturalized U.S. citizens, need a valid U.S. passport to reenter the United States. You should ensure that your passport has sufficient validity on it for your return to the U.S. Passports can be applied for at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, but it takes a minimum of one week to renew a passport because all U.S. passports are now processed in the United States.
Q: Can children travel on their parent’s passports?
No. Every travelling applicant, including new born babies and minor children, must have their own valid passport. Airlines may not board children that do not have their own individually-issued passports and if boarded they may be refused admission into the U.S. Additionally, children who are required to have a visa to enter the U.S. must also have their own valid U.S. visa; they may not travel on their parent’s visa. Children who have a valid U.S. visa that is in a parent’s passport, may continue to travel on that visa but will still need to have their own valid passport.
Q: Do I need to have six months validity on my passport?
Guyanese regulations require that citizens of Guyana have at least six months validity on their passports to travel outside of Guyana. Airlines may deny boarding to Guyanese passport holders who have less than six months validity on their passports. Guyanese nationals who are allowed to travel with less than six months validity on their passport may have their stay in the U.S. limited to the validity of their passport. It is therefore a good idea to renew your passport if it is going to expire within six months.
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“Ask the Consul” is a periodic column from the U.S. Embassy answering questions about U.S. immigration law and visa issues. If you have a general question about visa policy please email it to us at AskGeorge@state.gov. We select questions and publish the answers in Stabroek News and on our website at http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/guyana/ask_con.html. For more information about visas please see http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov or http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/.
Other than the questions we select, we DO NOT respond to questions sent to Ask the Consul. Please contact the visa inquiries unit (email visageorge@state.gov or call 225-7965 between 8 am- 12 pm and 1 pm- 4 pm Monday through Friday) if you have questions about a specific case.
