I was chatting with a friend recently, and his comments reminded me of a cruel reality for passport holders: The lifespan of passports is shorter than advertised.
[My youngest daughter] got a passport at age 6 weeks. She’ll be stuck with that photo until age 4 1/2, because passports aren’t really valid up until the expiration date; most countries require 6 months of remaining validity to let you in.
And since kids only get 5 years’ validity anyway, for us crazies who get passports for babies, we’ll have to buy 4 passports before they’re adults and move up to the 10-year passports.
This is really a great point. Passports aren’t really fully valid as they approach their expiration date. Some countries require your passport to be valid three or six months past your date of intended departure. Presumably, this is meant to assure the country’s immigration folk that you’ll be legally permitted to return home, if circumstances were to cause your stay in their land to be extended.
I learned this the hard way, nearly 16 years ago. At the time, I unwittingly thought that the date of the intended departure from the foreign country mattered. But no. I tried using a passport that had only 2 months’ life on it, for a one-month trip abroad. It required special dispensations from the customs and immigration offices of Fiji and Tonga, the countries I was traveling to. Luckily, I had a long layover at LAX, and Air New Zealand staff were able to make it work. But that was in 1994. I don’t know if that would be possible today. Lesson learned.
Most airlines will catch this at the time of check-in. But that is likely too late to do anything about it. In our hypersensitive security environment, you won’t likely be able to smooth-talk your way across a border without a passport with many months of validity.
The U.S. State Department offers a list of expiration restrictions by country on their website, here. Scroll down to the “entry/exit requirements” section.
So be forewarned: those 10-year passports will only be valid for travel for 9.5 years. They’ll still serve as valid identification, though. Just not at many overseas points of entry.
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February 4th, 2010 at 12:57 am
Good warning. I regularly see people who have been caught out by the 6 months remaining validity rule.
In my case passport validity is about 2 years, since my country has a rule that only the original 48 pages can be used (no adding extra pages later).
February 4th, 2010 at 9:51 am
I think the airlines are also more dilligent about the requirement (which doesn’t help the traveller if they aren’t aware of it), since if a flier is denied entry at the foreign country the airline is on the hook to get them back.
IIRC, the logic for the six months in most countries is that it is often the longest a visitor can still be a “visitor,” not an immigrant, and they want to make sure the visitors can go back home.
February 4th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
You must of read my mind because I was going to write about this myself. My passport is up in July and I’m getting ready to renew now. 9.5 years is actually right!
February 5th, 2010 at 2:32 am
[...] Reality check: Passport life is 9.5 years, not 10 - Upgrade: Travel Better [...]
February 5th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I renewed early because of the 6 months rule and the new passport began my new 10 years from the date of application, rather from the expiration date of the old passport. Makes me feel like this is coming out at less than 9.5 years over the long run.
February 7th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Great point – I thought everyone knew about the 6 month rule, but I guess I take it for granted since I travel a lot
February 12th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Twitter Comment
yeah, you should check the expiration date on your passport. i’m gonna go look at mine right NOW. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher