Hi All,

I have UNBEFRISTET (niederlassungserlaubnis) visa stamped on my passport. Currently I am out of Germany. My passport will expire on December 5th and then I will be getting my new passport. I intend to come back to Germany on December 18th. My question is: would my visa on the expired passport still be valid? That is, when I am coming back to Germany on December 18th, I will be holding my expired passport (with UNBEFRISTET visa on it) and the new passport. Kindly reply me whether this would cause any problem at the immigration office, otherwise I should better come back before my passport expires.

Many thanks,
Regards!

Writing "URGENT" in the title doesn't fetch you any quick replies. You were well aware that your passport is expiring and travelled outside Germany. This question should have been asked before you leave the country.

Coming to your question:
Carry both the old/expired passport with the NE stamp and the new passport. you should have no problems with the immigration.

By the way, how will you get a new passport when you are ouside Germany ? As per Norm as a resident of Germany, passport renawal should be applied at the respective consultate in germany,

Thanks for your reply.

You are right; I have taken the note of exclusively (not) writing “Urgent” in the title – certainly all the queries are important. I have edited thread's title.

Dear, I am visiting my native country. Before leaving the Germany I did knew that due to my family commitments here, it might be the case that I have to extend my stay and meanwhile my passport expires. Therefore, before my departure from Germany, I did go to the Stadtamt and they said that only they have the authority to make my “Unbefristet” visa on the old passport invalid. However, I still doubt whether I have clarified them properly about the case of my passport getting expired while I am in my native country and then renewing my passport from here. Hence, I wanted to make sure that my visa on the old/expired passport remains valid when I return to Germany on December 18th.

Since, I am here in my native country; I believe I can also renew my passport from here – I will be re-checking it from the local office here. Previously, I have always renewed my passport from our consulate in Germany.

Many countries issue new passport with an additional line saying 'Old PPT contains valid visa'. If you can get this line in your new PP, you should not have any problems reentering Germany.

Hope this helps.

In my view, visa on a expired passport is invalid. You have to apply for type D visa from your native country on your new passport.

Hi,
I just created account to answer your question.
You can travel with NE on expired passport. I have once renewed my Passport during my visit to home country and faced no problem.
Important is that your stay should not exceed above 6 months.
Pls also take care that, although its NE but it’s mostly valid till the validity of passport. If  " Gültig bis " is written on NE, then it would be valid till that written date, if there is no expiry date on visa (NE) then it would be valid and you would not face any problem.
Hope it will help.

It's VALID.  I have been through the same situation. In my case, my passport was damaged and the I got it renewed in India.  I took my old passport along with me while returning back to Germany.

Since your pass was damaged but visa was not expired till your travel date so it was valid.
The only concern is if visa validity (even NE or UNBEFRISTET) is linked with passport validity then it would get expired with passport.
If visa does not show any expiry date then it would be valid with new passport.
For example, in my case, UNBEFRISTET Visa is linked with passport validity. so it will automatically expired with pass.

Thank you all for your feedback. It has been very helpful.

I am sure that my visa is not linked to the passport validity DATE. In case you would like to add any further comments, my visa contains following info:

NAME: xxxxx
GÜLTIG BIS: unbefristet
AUSSTELLUNGSORT/DATUM: xxxxx

ARTS DES TITELS: NIEDERLASSUNGSERLAUBNIS            
                              erwerbstätigkeit gestatte

ANMERKUNGEN: §9 AufenthG
AUSWEIS-NR:  xxxxx
AUSLÄNDERBEHÖRDE: xxxx

You can travell but dont forget to keep the old passport with you.