I am curious about this info taken from

https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...act-sheet.html

"Entry into any of the 26 European countries in the Schengen area for short-term tourism, a business trip, or in transit to a non-Schengen destination, requires that your passport be valid for at least three months beyond your intended date of departure. Because many Schengen countries assume all travelers will stay the full three months allowed for visa-free visitors, we recommend that U.S. citizens:

Have at least six month’s validity remaining on your passport whenever you travel abroad."

I am curious if anyone know of people who have been tripped up on this (not having six months when the stated requirement is only three months).

We are looking at the idea of an early Oct. trip to Europe for a couple weeks and have passports that expire in mid Feb. I guess we will renew now even though we'd technically be within the three month window. It would seem to me that the possession of a plane ticket with a return date would be proof that one would not be staying a long time, so I don't get why there would be an automatic assumption that people would be staying for the full three months.

"I don't get why there would be an automatic assumption that people would be staying for the full three months."

Because there is.

It's really none of your business. Twenty-something democratic governments make a rule. All you need to concern yourself over is whether you're obeying it.

If you do: fine. If you don't you'll be denied boarding in your departing country.

Whether you think you ought to be or not.

Last summer we went to London, Paris and Venice with nieces whose passports only had 4 months remaining. I had the same concerns about the three month/ six month issue but we did not experience any problems or questions.

It's not uncommon for people to have issues with passports that expire in six months. Best not to risk it.

Some countries require 6 months, others 3 months. If the country you are flying into requires 6 months on your passport, and you don't have 6 months remaining, you will be denied boarding (at your expense).

What's your question?

Is it "should I ignore the State Department's advice"? If so, the answer is no.

If your question is "can I travel with an about-to-expire passport" the answer is likely "it depends."

And if you're just wondering why these rules exist, the answer is it doesn't matter. They do. Violate them at your own risk.

>>Some countries require 6 months, others 3 months.<< and some (like the UK only require the passport be valid for the length of the trip.

So WHERE are you flying in to?

>>If the country you are flying into requires 6 months on your passport, and you don't have 6 months remaining, you will be denied boarding (at your expense).<<

That . . .

What BigRuss said.

Just renew your passports.
If you plan to do more travelling, you won't have to worry about it.

Another layer - because airlines are on the hook to fly you home if you are denied entry to the country you intend to visit, sometimes the airlines won't let you board your flight without 6 months left on your passport. This can happen even if you are flying to a country without a 6 month rule.

I mean, I share the OP's annoyance. It's really annoying that your passport's expiration date is kind of irrelevant. But that's the way it is.

To my knowledge, it's 3 months. Where did you come up with the 6-month rule?

State Department says it's recommended that a passport has 6 months validity which would cover entry to virtually to any country in the world.

You need to renew your passport before your trip.

I see no gray area about this: "requires that your passport be valid for at least three months beyond your intended date of departure."

>>Where did you come up with the 6-month<<

It varies by country . . .

>>It would seem to me that the possession of a plane ticket with a return date would be proof that one would not be staying a long time, so I don't get why there would be an automatic assumption that people would be staying for the full three months.<<

It isn't necessarily because anyone expects you to over stay. There are lots of reason a country might require 3 months, or 6 months or one month or whatever. Say there is an accident or illness and one is hospitalized and the passport expires. Or like after 9/11, or even when the volcanos in Iceland grounded all flights for a couple of weeks. Having the rule just makes things clear for everyone -- the traveler, the airline (who won't board you if they think there is a chance you won't be admitted), the country one is visiting, etc.

We will renew (as I originally said) because we will need them again this winter. But, for this trip we will have nearly four months left on our passports when we return to the US. That is my quibble.

If countries are going to assume that everyone who sets foot in the door is planning to stay for a full three months on top of the three months required, why don't they just be up front about it and say six months required?

It is my understanding that Schengen agreement countries France and Italy did move to a six month requirement in 2016. Most other Schengen countries still say three months (and don't attack me if I am wrong because I did not do an extensive search looking at all European Schengen countries).

We are thinking of visiting Italy but flying into Switzerland because flights from the US are much cheaper there. Switzerland only requires three months. We are still trying to put the pieces of this trip together.

I guess janis and I were posting at the same time.

Note that the official Italian embassy site in the USA says you need only three months left after departure:

http://www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it...visa-step.html

That's what I relied on.

The French embassy site also says three months after departure from Schengen:

https://washington.consulfrance.org/spip.php?article700

Beware traveling to South Africa. You need to have 4 blank pages in your passport and if you don't, they won't let you on the plane.

Does this make sense? Not in the least. But if you want to go there, that's what you have to do.