Does France have a requirement that your passport must be valid for a certain length of time--for example, at least 6 months--beyond your arrival date? My passport will expire exactly 6 months after my arrival in France and my husband's will expire 5 months afterwards. Because it's a serious issue, I will probably call the French consulate, but for now, I'd like to hear from anyone who might know. Thanks.

Renew your passport and keep it current when you are traveling abroad, for pete's sake!

Since you will be calling to confirm, I will simply say that I know of no such law or regulation. If you find such a requirement, I strongly urge you to come back to this board and tell everyone.

I believe that the requirement is 30 days. Check this web site for information: http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html

Checking with the French consulate is the way to go -- assuming you don't have enough lead time left to simply renew your passports before you leave. That said, I have to tell you that in a dozen trips to France, they've never even stamped my passport.

We are going on the Celebrity Mediterrean cruise in May and their brochure states that your passport should be renewed if it is expiring within 6mths of your trip. Also, you don't want to get into trouble in for emergency health reasons, you have to stay longer abroad..better to renew!

Renew your passport before you go.<BR>It's a simple thing to do and if you get a customs agent who's feeling bitchy and decides he doesn't like your soon to expire passports, you're going to wish you had renewed.<BR>I got hassled at the Dublin airport about ten years ago for that very reason.

Why posting on a message board and calling the French consule?<BR>Just renew the damn thing, it's not a big deal.

I will answer my own question with info from the French Government Tourist Office: Passports must be valid for 3 months beyond the last day in France.