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I have an old South African passport which has no more space for visas, and a new South African passport which I got because the old one is full. The old passport hasn't expired yet (only expiring next year).

Now I'm currently applying for a visa for a trip to Romania, for which I will be leaving South Africa on the 4th of July. I also have another trip to Kenya before that, which is from the 22nd of June to the 1st of July. The problem is that if the Romanian embassy still has my new/current passport by the time I have to go to Kenya, how can I travel?

So, would it be possible for me to use my old passport for travel to and from Kenya? As a South African, I don't need a visa for Kenya, and although there are no fully empty pages in my old passport, there is enough space for it to be stamped. If I remember correctly, they haven't drilled any holes in the old passport (I'll check this when I get home tonight), as I've read about in other answers on this site.

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    Unfortunately, the only answers are purely speculative. Technically, it would depend entirely on the Kenyan officer. If he/she insists on having their own free section/page, they can deny you entry. Silly, but they have a lot of discretion. Realistically, they'll just stamp in the first open space they see. How big is the Kenyan stamp? That might be a factor. – Johns-305 Jun 13 '18 at 14:44
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    US citizens can get second passports for this circumstance. (This is not dual citizenship. It is 2 concurrently valid US passports.) Can South African citizens similarly get a second passport. (However, if it is similar to US service, you won't get your 2nd passport until well after July 4 - this won't solve your problem unless you plan well in advance.) – emory Jun 13 '18 at 21:38
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    @Liam Baker, given you've now traveled you can answer this yourself for anyone else with a similar issue! :) – dlanod Jun 28 '18 at 1:53
  • @dlanod I'd like to, but I see that the question was closed more recently... I'll try get it un-closed. – Liam Baker Jul 24 '18 at 8:39
  • @LiamBaker It's been reopened so you can provide an answer. – Augustine of Hippo Aug 7 '18 at 14:54
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So having gotten back from this trip, I can give my experience as an answer:

I went to visit Home Affairs, and they told me that I am allowed to use the old passport in Kenya as long as there is space for stamps, and indeed I used my old passport when I went to Kenya with no problems, using the new passport afterwards when I went to Romania.

So it seems that for South African passports, if one gets a new one one can still use the old one as long as the old one still has space in it. Yay!

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