chuckyd4

Hi all. I recently booked a long weekend at a resort in Turks & Caicos. I had checked around for entry requirements (I am American), and noticed that a passport is required. Check.

It wasn't until I got the confirmation e-mail from my resort that I noticed this little gem: "All nationalities, including US & UK citizens, will need to show a passport valid for at least 6 months."

Okay, here's the problem: my trip is from February 29th until March 4th. My passport expires on March 30.

I know that once upon a time, one could enter TCI with just an ID and a birth certificate. If that's still true, I have both of those. Technically, my passport is valid for the length of my stay (I have proof of my return flight confirmation).

So can anyone tell me if I should even be worried and if so, what's my best option? As my flight leaves in six days, I don't think there's anyway I can get a renewed passport that soon. (Unless someone can tell me an absolutely 100% assured expedited option). Any chance my soon-to-expire passport, my birth certificate, resort and plane reservations, and return flight confirmation will be enough to convince any wary border agents? Am I completely screwed here? Help! I dropped a fair amount of money on this spontaneous getaway, so this would just be a really crap wrench in the whole plan, especially cause I *do* in fact have a valid passport!

mah1980

You should be worried and should go and use one of the passport agencies to do it overnight. Or, you can make an appointment at one of the national centers in major cities to do it the same day.

If your passport expires prior to the 6 month period, then they probably won't let you in. Most countries have the same type of expiration period position.

chuckyd4

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you have any ideas on which passport agencies are actually reliable?

cw

I have no experience with passport expediters but if you live near a city that has a passport office, you could make an appointment and go yourself. I have done this in the past.

mah1980

Look here for the passport agencies:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/abo...ncies_913.html

beachbum2

My friend went direct to the DC agency and got hers renewed in a day. You should be able to find a center and get it done.

chuckyd4

Thanks everyone, for all the good suggestions. Surprised to find out that this soon-to-expire thing is such a big deal, but glad I found out sooner rather than later.

Atlanta (where I am) has no regional passport agency, but my Mom lives near Boston (which does). So I'm currently on my way there, with an appointment for tomorrow morning.

Hopefully they can get it done as quickly as everyone says! Thanks for all your help, I'll let everyone know how it goes, in case future travelers are in a similar situation and see this thread.

eileen

I think there needs to be more marketing about this done by the passport agencies etc. because it's really easy to get trapped by this since all the materials say that adult passports are good for 10 years and children's for five years which is really not the case -- it's actually 9 1/2 years and 4 1/2 years with the six months rule and since you have to allow time to actually renew it's less than that. My kids'passports expire in August and I have to renew them now. And also, everyone please note, two weeks ago they changed the passport application -- I had the paperwork all completed and was told, "Oh, we just got new forms!" You really have to be on top of this stuff. Amd the process for children is really difficult -- the entire family including both parents, has to show up at the agency and most of the hours are really limited -- (10 a.m. - 3 p.m. on weekdays at our post office -- try arranging that with two parents who work and kids in school!) I feel your pain. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

travelhappyfamily

Thanks for bringing this up - I was also clueless on the six month clause.

And I agree about the rules for getting child applications completed. Very difficult to coordinate.

china_cat

As I understand it, the 6 month clause has nothing to do with US regulations, which is why it is not documented in any of the US passport info. The US will let you back INTO the country with a passport that expires tomorrow. Its the country you are going TO that requires it to be good for 6 months. I think (though I'm not sure of this), its because you don't have a visa to enter than country, you could theoretically stay up to 6 months. They don't want you to do that, have your passport expire, and be stuck in their country.

I realize this isa fine point. I just mention it, because this is why the US won't say in their docs anywhere that you should renew your passport in 9 1/2 years.

It can be VERY difficult to figure out if a particular country has the 6 month rule or not. For this reason, its better to be safe and go ahead and renew when you know you will have less than 6 months left.

chuckyd4

Good point, china_cat. Even the folks at the passport agency (in Boston) seemed like they thought it was kind of a silly rule, when I explained why I was renewing so late.

But yeah, to update, I had a 10:30am appointment at the Boston agency. Got through the line and had all my paperwork submitted by 10:45. They gave me a little slip telling me to come back any time after 3pm (same day!) and it would be ready. Got back right at 3, and lo and behold - new passport!

Very excited, and glad that everything worked so smoothly. Thanks again for all the suggestions!