CityWok

I'm due to head to an international fleet coming up. Do I need to take the initiative to get the second passport and visa requirements or wait till I'm prompted? Thanks

jtschulte

Just went through process of second passport/primary renewal/ Chinese visa drill. Pretty much PITA. Bid reserve and that should get you around 15 day rule for pay protection since you're still eligible for short call even though you most likely won't fly unless a ferry reposition pops up. Surprisingly the second passport took the longest at two weeks. Primary returned in about. 4 days. And although I had to resubmit Chinese visa application due to a typo on my end but had to resubmit the entire thing...that was retuned in about 3 days after resubmitting. You can do Chinese visa early and CIBT will hold onto until your original is expired...mine actually was returned about 7 days early even though says you can't submit til expired that kinda suprised me. If you submit early CIBT can find typos etc that might hold up application and give you time to fix. I also sent CIBT the hard copy of the same passport picture for all three documents and they edited the one used for Chinese visa which only accepted with a completely white background so they were really helpful.

the biggest PITA was scheduling (surprise I know) ....they had remarks in my schedule for "domestic only" but kept schedule me intl trips every day. Sometimes would get the same trip put back on my schedule after a shift change. After a couple days I was kind of tempted to quit calling scheduling to point out their error...but ended up calling CPSC and told them I have done my due diligence and if a trip doesn't get covered it's on them...she took it to a supervisor and didn't hear anything else.

finally got a call from CP following up on why I was dropping trips according to scheduling. Told them I followed the procedure and he agreed that I was 100% correct but just had to follow up. Pretty frustrating.

finally if you don't belong in category that requires Chinese visa you won't be reimbursed my recommendation is not to get unless required.

sailingfun

If it's a full school just wait until you start school.

tcco94

You do it while you’re on Virginia Ave

Amike

Update for anyone interested: I got my original passport back a week after getting the secondary. So it was about three weeks for the secondary and a month for the whole process. (Jan/Feb 2024)

FangsF15

One more data point with CBIT for a routine 10-year passport renewal just this month: UPS dropoff expiring passport to USPS delivery of new one was 10 calendar days.

Amike

Recent update for the primary passport renewal timeline: dropped off at UPS on Tuesday afternoon and received the new one on Saturday. Standard CIBT process.

China visa next.

captkdobbs

It's going to take longer than THAT to fill out the China visa application!!! :-o