Does my passport need to be valid for six months? Help!!!
 

We are traveling to England next month and one of our passports expires September 27th. WIll this be a problem? What solutions do you suggest?
TIA

Britain imposes a minimum passport validity requirement ONLY on visitors who need a visa to be here.

So if you're Australian, Canadian, Malaysian or American and here on holiday, you've got no problem.

If you're Indian or Bangladeshi, you'd better get yourself a new passport.

Sorry, that was badly phrased.

Unless you need a visa to be here, Britain merely requires your passport to be valid for the whole length of your proposed stay. We don't need any of this six month nonsense.

So if you're Malaysian etc, you don't intend taking up a job and you intend being out of here before midnight on September 27, you've got no problem.

Check the State Dep't. site for U.S. requirements as well.

Hi A,

It is almost always the case that your passport should expire no earlier than 90 days after the day you arrive.

I am assuming that you are from the US or CA.

((I))

It is NOT always the case that visitors to the UK need to have passports valid for 90 days. Indeed, for non-visa nationals (such as Malaysians or Americans), it is NEVER the case, unless they're visiting for a reason that requires a visa.

Nor, by the way, is there any such requirement for visa waiver nationals visiting the US.

Ira, quite simply, is talking nonsense.

Some people have said that you cannot get back into the U.S. without 6 months remaining on your passport. This is not true. The passport only has to be valid on the day you return.

Actually, I had a phone conversation with someone from Immigration and Border Control, and they said that, in actuallity, they would never deny entrance to a U.S. citizen with an expired passport (it just might be more difficult to prove citizenship - but that would probably be established by the expired passport).

So, if my passport expires January 20, 2007, I'm good to go for a trip to ITALY beginning September 23 and returning October 8. Right!?

I thought the UK & US had an agreement that effectively extends the life of a passport by 6 months as long as the passport is valid on the date of entry.

And exactly how could entry to the US be denied to a US citizen regardless of the state of their passport - erven if they have one?

I have no idea what larryincolorado is talking about. Getting into the US on a US passport merely requires it to be valid that day.

Celiaanne: As for Italy - the requirement (for Italian immigration - not US immigration) is the passport must be valid for 90 days after the end of the trip. You are OK - but just barely. Why not just renew your passport now or in the next couple of months? You don't have to wait until your passport expires to renew it.

Thanks, janis. I probably will do what you recommend.

My dear CotswoldScouser

<It is NOT always the case that visitors to the UK need to have passports valid for 90 days. ...Ira, quite simply, is talking nonsense.<

If you will read what I said, it was, "It is almost always ....".

((I))