Passport
 

Will there be any problems using my US passport with 5 months left before it expires getting into Japan? Thank you.

Have you looked on your official government travel advice website for visiting Japan. There should be a page listing the Entry Requirements.

I haven't checked Japan specifically, but many Asian countries require 6 months validity beyond your proposed departure date. I'd renew that passport if I were you.

I recently had cause to check this myself for my uk passport and found this on the UK FCO website

"Your passport should be valid for the proposed duration of your stay. No additional period of validity beyond this is required."

I can't imagine it would be any different for US passports so you should be ok.

Japan is an exception, as it does not require 6 months validity beyond your stay according to the US State department. "Passports must be valid for the intended period of stay in Japan."

It is very common for there to be different requirements for different countries passports. Are you going anywhere else in Asia on this trip?

<<<I can't imagine it would be any different for US passports so you should be ok.>>>

And if it is?

LL, I checked, and quoted from the US state Dept website above. You are quite right, though, the requirements for different passports are often different. Consider the differences for VN - US passport holders pay over $200 for a visa, UK holders get two weeks for free.

<<<...UK holders get two weeks for free>>>

And I'll be taking advantage of those 15 days soon tvm. The US visa thing is a mess and shouldn't have happened. Then again I was a bit miffed having to pay for ESTA just to do an international transit at Houston recently.....but I did enjoy the triple bacon and mushroom burger with cheesy fries.

The visa requirements of countries are an entirely separate issue from passport validity requirements. Countries change visa conditions all the time whereas passport validity requirements rarely change and are pretty uniform for all nationalities.

The other factor to consider of course, is some countries requirements for a blank page, in some case two blank pages, which can be a real pain as most immigration officials seem to be on a mission to seek and destroy any blank pages in my passports.

That'sthe problem.....rarely change = they could change. It's always best to look at government travel advice for your chosen destination. As well as peace of mind there'll be things on the travel advice website that you hadn't thought of.

Good reminder, crellston, about the blank pages requirement - I've known more than one person turned away from Cambodia due to the two blank pages requirement!

Plus Nepal and Vietnam. It's all part of the essential pre-trip homework.....'Failing to Prepare = Preparing to Fail', or putting it a bit more crudely theres 'PPPPPP'.

Back to Norbert's question...

Maybe I'm too much of a worrier, but I would still want six months of validity on my passport. What if your plane gets diverted somewhere? If you live near a US passport office, it can be done on the same day, if necessary.

<<<What if your plane gets diverted somewhere?>>>

Sounds exciting.

Flying Malaysia Air are you?