Passport Must Be Valid for 6 Months Beyond Expected Return Date?
 

What is this all about?

I just booked flights from Toronto to Aruba for February, 2011. The booking agent told me that our passports have to be "valid for 6 months beyond expected return date".

Our Passports expire in July, 2011. We return from Aruba Feb, 2011. That's not 6 months!

Do we have to renew our passports?

Has anybody here heard of this requirement?

We have traveled extensively all around the world and ALWAYS have been told and found it to be true that passports must be valid for 6 months from your date of entry/exit from a country. I would not take a chance on this as you are talking about 5 months. Get a new passport. Airlines are supposed to check and you will be checked to see how long it is valid for before you board the plane or ship or whatever. This has been my experience for the past 18 years, and I would strongly advise not taking a chance on ruining your trip. Good luck and have a great vacation.

Travel agents always advise to have your passports valid for six months beyond your expected return date to be safe. From my experience, I have discovered it depends on the country. Some countries insist passports be valid for 3 months beyond expected return date. Please see this link for Aruba:
http://www.aruba.com/sigma/Entry_Req-Eng.pdf

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. i was 2 weeks short of the 6 month passport validity upon completion of travel. i applied for a new passport per the airline's advice. they can technically deny boarding to passport holders who don't meet this requirement.

Thanks for your replies.

We will renew.

Is this something new? I had never heard of this requirement.

Ocean

Any other comments?

Can someone clarify whether this also applies to routine trips across the Canadian border from U.S. locales by U.S. citizens??

(I'm on my first passport, obtained only for reasons of getting to Canada without delay)

My daughter lives in Texas and visits us in Victoria. There isn't the same 6 mos restriction when she visits. I think between the two countries the passport is more for security ID.

I just received a notice that for Aruba our passports must be valid until THREE months beyond our return date to Canada.
First I was told SIX months. Now it's three. So, which is it?

Anybody else getting conflicting info like this?

I've been traveling out of the US for years and years and years, and the 6 month rule has been true all along. You might just want to go ahead and renew the passports and not worry about 3 months vs. 6 months. At least, that's what I would do.

<<I just received a notice that for Aruba our passports must be valid until THREE months beyond our return date to Canada.
First I was told SIX months. Now it's three. So, which is it?>>

Why don't you just look at the official government website for the correct information. I did and it took me about 10 seconds to find this:

http://www.aruba.com/sigma/Entry_Req-Eng.pdf

You're welcome.

You don't have to be so rude & condescending, laverendrye. Does it make you feel better when you insult people in cyber space?....geez.

<<You don't have to be so rude & condescending, laverendrye. Does it make you feel better when you insult people in cyber space?....geez.>>

Oceanbreeze1

It was not my intention to be rude or condescending, but obviously my comments were taken that way and for that I apologize.

Neither do I make it a practice or take pleasure in insulting people on this board (even in the Lounge) as a perusal of my posts over the 7 years I have been posting to Fodors will indicate.

I did think, however, think it strange that this discussion had gone on for several days without any reference to official sources, and thought it would be useful to point out such a source especially as your posts kept asking for further comment. Clearly I should have realized that a gentler and more nuanced reply would have been more appropriate in this case.

laverendrye

Had you listened to "official sources" with regard to U.S./Canada entry requirements over the past 5 years, you'd have been cautioned far, far too early about the then-upcoming "mandatory" passport (OR, later, secondary ID) deadline for land border crossing. Perhaps roughly one-third the duration of a passport renewal. Furthermore, "official sources" never hinted at all about options to passports when they first announced the land border crossing changes which have finally now taken place.

As is the case with topics all over Fodors, there is nothing like getting information from actual people who have taken the exact path you're interested in taking.

Don't forget, these "official sources" are the same folks responsible for having leaked terrorists through our borders and through our airports to begin with, which is, of course, what has caused the rest of us these inconveniences.

Thx, NWM...

I have been properly admonished. From now on I will mistrust official sources, or at least those US Government sources to which NorthwestMale is apparently referring.

That aside, I am quite redfaced as somehow I missed an early post from Scotia which linked to the same Aruba government document that I had cited. So much for my comment that no official sources had been cited (for what they are worth).

Obviously I need to think twice before I post.