What Happened to Peter Pang’s Passport?

Elvin Penner

Another infamous case is that of Peter Pang, whose nationality certificate was backdated; his file was missing despite being requested by the Auditors, and there was no evidence that Pang had paid for his certificate.  More importantly, Pang was not here long enough to qualify for nationality, having entered in April of 2013, though his passport goes back to 2011.  Penner, who signed the certificate for nationality, suggested that it’s possible he had an expired passport, but he’s not clear on the details.

Elvin Penner, Former Minister of State, Immigration and Nationality

“He would have had to supply – let’s say he has a passport that expired in 2011; his initial – if he got permanent residency, his initial permanent residency stamp would be in that passport.”

Mark Lizarraga, Senator for Business Community

“The old one.”

Elvin Penner

“So when he renews his passport, he either gets a new stamp in his new passport or if he doesn’t do that, he would have had to submit his prior passport where that residency stamp would have been in.”

Mark Lizarraga

“But he arrived in the country in 2013, so how he could have been here prior to that?”

Elvin Penner

“But it doesn’t say that is the first time he arrived in the country.”

Mark Lizarraga

“Okay, but to have his nationality, he would have had to have lived here for a continuous period of time…”

Elvin Penner

“Yes.”

Mark Lizarraga

“So if you look at that one passport, and the first stamp you see in that passport is the tenth of April, 2013, how could he qualify?”

Elvin Penner

“Again, I would like to say that I cannot recall this particular file or details of this particular file; all I can go by is what is mentioned in this report.”