An OINP Human Capital Priorities applicant's dependent spouse had renewed her passport for an address change; the old passport was blank (no travel, visas, or permits) and physically left behind in India. He asked whether the old passport copy must be uploaded. The thread's two positions:
- 'Upload it for transparency.' One member said yes: every new passport carries the previous passport's file number, so including the old one keeps the application maximally transparent.
- 'Blank old passports aren't needed.' The counter-view: precisely because the new passport records the old passport number, a predecessor with no travel history, visas, or stamps adds nothing — no scan required.
- Either way, only scans are uploaded. A member reminded the poster this is an upload of scanned copies, not a physical submission — so having only a soft copy of the old passport is not a problem, and couriering the physical booklet from India was unnecessary worry.
Practical resolution: since the poster had a soft copy anyway, uploading it satisfies both views at zero cost; applicants without any copy of a blank old passport shouldn't panic — the new passport's reference number covers the linkage.