TT26

My 17 yr old son will be travelling from Canada to Italy and Greece in March '07, then to Germany and Austria in April '07 (lucky kid, they are all school trips).

He has a valid Canadian passport that expires in August '07. I have heard that for some countries, your passport has to be valid for 6 months beyond the expected departure date.
My question is where can I find out if this is true for the countries he will be visiting?

We are working on his budget and need to factor in passport renewal, if necessary.

Thank you

Gretchen

Why risk it. It could ruin a whole trip and cost you a lot of money just for not renewing it. All that needs to happen is one immigration agent who interprets the regs in a different way.

sandi

Another vote to renew as soon as the current rush period is over. So many individuals are renewing or obtaining new passports during the summer months. I'd suggest in the Fall (October or November, latest). Renewals usually take less time than new passports, so he should have his new passport within about three-weeks. You have sufficient time between then and his first trip in March '07.

ira

Hi TT,

I also suggest renewing the passport before going.

He'll have to renew it when he comes back, anyway.

Dukey

Of course, the "rush" for passports and passport renewals may be a bit different in Canada than it is in the US.

You can get information about the visitor requirements from the consulates/embassies of the countries to be visited or from websites. However, the problem may arise with indivdiual Immigration officials and their interpretation of the the "rules" as someone above has alluded.

I agree that the easiest approach is to renew the passport now and get it over with. If you do it now you won't have to worry about the "rush" or the "crush" since his first foreign trip isn't scheduled until next year.

focalist

Yes definitely renew your son's passport before he heads off on these wonderful trips.
I renewed my Canadian passport recently (July/07) and the cost was $87.00.
I received my new document 2 weeks after handing in the application.
I agree with Sandi that waiting until October or November will give you plenty of time and you might avoid the longer lines at the Passport Office.

suze

I would definitely renew sometime this fall, so he has it before he leaves on the first upcoming trip next year.

Heimdall

To be honest, I don't know whether or not you will find the information here, but a good website for Canadians travelling abroad is http://tinyurl.com/mhnzq. You can also check the American and British counterparts of Canadian Foreign Affairs at http://www.travel.state.gov/ and http://tinyurl.com/4nfo respectively.

I do agree with above posters that it would be a good idea to renew the passport ahead of time, however.

traveldawg

I was going to Burma last year. I needed a visa. My passport had 4 months left to expiration. Burma turned it down unless it had more than 6 months left. I would not take a chance. I had to pay an expediter to get mine on time. I made it with one day to spare.

justretired

In the US, you cannot leave the country unless your passpoprt is valid on your return date. My daughter missed a flight at the last minute when she realized that her pasport would expire while she was in Scotland (she had misread the passport and had thought it wa not expiring until she reurned- she happened to notice it the day of her departure). She was told that she would not be able to leave the US. So, to make a long story short, she changed her ticket to the next night and ran around Chicago during the day to update her passport. It was expensive and anxiety producing. Get a new passport in advance.

rkkwan

The US doesn't care when or how you leave the country. There's not even passport control for leaving the US.

If you're flying, all the airline cares is if you can get into your DESTINATION country. It's a free country, you can leave whenever you want.

How easy it is to get back with an expired passport is a different story though.

janisj

rkkwan: &quot;<i>The US doesn't care when or how you leave the country. There's not even passport control for leaving the US.

If you're flying, all the airline cares is if you can get into your DESTINATION country. It's a free country, you can leave whenever you want. </i>&quot;

This isn't in answer to the OP (for the record I agree w/ everyone else, renew early) but I have seen a US passport holder turned away from the check in counter bacause of the vlaidity. True - there is no immigration exiting the US - but last year at SFO the passengers at the next agent down were having a huge to do because the woman's (assuming the mother of the family) passport expired before the return date of the R-T ticket.

They were flying to London - have no idea where they were flying back from because I didn't overhear everything. But apparently they didn't notice her passport expired before the end of the trip. Don't know what finally happened but last I saw them they were going off to discuss if the rest of the family would travel w/o her.

janisj

Oops - meant to add. Also don't know if this was the &quot;rule&quot; or if it was just a particularly stubborn agent. But I do know they didn't get on my flight.

rkkwan

janisj - I understand what you're saying, and I don't dispute that what you saw is happening.

However, say I buy a one-year roundtrip ticket out of the country (which do exist), and my passport expires in 11 months. I do not think the airline has the right to deny me boarding as it's very reasonable and practical for me to get my passport renewed at a US consulate overseas sometime during the next 11 months.

janisj

Even if you are right, do you want to risk it? The airline agents do wield control over whether you get a boarding pass or not . . . . .

rkkwan

See, the thing is this. Airlines check your passport to make sure you can legally get into the destination country. Because they will need to fly you back and subject to fines by the destination country.

It's definitely not the case with a US passport that is going to expire before the return trip. That airline has no obligation to let the person board the return flight or to bring him/her home. They are not subject to fines or anything.

In fact, I'll say they have no rights to deny anybody to board a flight just because the passport is going to expire before the return trip. It's simply not their freaking business!

I will ask an immigration lawyer about this next time, and if an airline will deny me boarding because of this circumstance, they're going to pay for it. Trust me on this. [However, you won't get a 1st person response from me until at least 2010. ]

Girlspytravel

Rkkwan: This from the State Dept. website on Passport renewal:

Some countries require that your passport be valid at least six months beyond the dates of your trip and/or have two to four blank visa/stamp pages. Some airlines will not allow you to board if these requirements are not met.

travel.state.gov/passport/get/renew/renew_833.html

I'd say you'd be taking quite a risk if you wanted to board a plane with your hypothetical ticket.

rkkwan

Girlspytravel - That's for the destination country. I know that, and there's no dispute.

The question is coming back to the US. Let just use me as an example. I am a US citizen, but I grew up in Hong Kong with permanent residency there. Say if my passport expire in 5 months and I have a return ticket for 6 months later. Why would the airline prohibit me from boarding the outbound? I can get my passport renewed in Hong Kong, no problem.

<b>What if I had bought a one-way ticket to get out of the US?</b> How would the airline agent knows when I want to get back? What if I tell them my passport expires in 9 years but I plan to come back in 10? Will they not let be board then?

My guess is that what janisj saw is the airline agent <b>giving out the wrong reason</b> for denying a passenger to board. It's probably because he/she doesn't have enough time left to enter the destination country; not because the traveler can't get back to the US.

Girlspytravel

Oh, I think you're probably right about that-but your situation of 5 months validity left, return 6 months might ALSO get the ax from the carrier-even if you could renew your passport at the US consulate-if they see outbound that there is less than the 6 months validity-I wouldn't want to risk it.

Your hypothetical concerning the one-way ticket is a bit more problematic-I think there, if you had 9 years validity return 10 years, then no airline would refuse to board you outbound-and you would just have to get your passport renewed at the consulate before you boarded your return flight.

jeremygil

I am traveling to Italy in March (from the U.S.)and my passport expires in May. I sent an email to their passport person at the Italian Embassy in D.C. I asked about the 6 month thing and some other questions. The response was, &quot;Dear Sir, Please renew your passport!!&quot;