less than 6 months on daughters passport

[sugarcup]

Cant beleive how stupid i've been. Concentrated on renewing passports for me, hubby and son in the knowledge that daughters passport doesnt run out til 'next year'. was looking at it yesterday and it runs out on 1 feb 2015. we fly with thompsons on 15/8/14 & return on 30/8/14 so there is only 5 months on her passport when we return. I know the USA dont insist on having 6 months left, it only has to be valid for duration of trip. Thompson webiste says you have to have 6 months unless the country you are travelling to says otherwise, so we SHOULD be fine! However i'm worried! I called thomsons and (surprise surprise) they just said that they;d advise having 6 months 'to be on the safe side' and wouldnt comment on requirements of individual destinations. On various ''chat sites' i've visited it seems that this is general practice for a lot of travel companies so they dont have to check requirements for indiviudual countries. I;ve emailed them for soemthing in writing but am not holding my breath! I'm just imagining some 'jobsworth' at glasgow airport refusing to let her on plane! Does anyone else have any experience of this? If i;d realised sooner I'd have renewed it and feel rather foolish for not checking earlier! I'm temped to try and get an appointment to get it renewed but there;s a part of me thinking that i shouldnt have to!!
thanks

 

[karen1987]

The UK governments travel advice states that the passport need only be valid for the duration of your trip and you don't need any additional period of validity beyond this. Hope that helps.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/entry-requirements

 

[wayneg]

You will have no problems but if you are going to worry between now and travelling it might be worth doing something about it, I wouldn't myself but I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Elise79]

As your travelling next month I wouldn't be renewing it! I don't think children's passports can be done on same day anyway.

The USA does not need 6 months as you know. I would leave it. My DD travelled with less than 6 weeks on her passport.

 

[Clare D]

I agree with other posters to leave it. You have plenty of time left on it for your trip and a bit extra just in case.
When we get back I have 2 weeks left on mine so today I've been to the passport office at Peterborough to get a same day one. It was a 3 hour and 140 mile round trip, unfortunately I couldn't send it off before due to another trip that was booked.
If I had a few months left on it I definitely wouldn't have bothered.

 

[Jacqui8374]

Nice to hear from someone who has done it! I am in the same position and given the passport mess decided to ride with it with my trip late august - September. I am going tot ake a copy of the notice mentoned above to the airport with me in case of problems but there should not be any I decided I was happier having a passport in hand than worrying about getting it back in time going to renew on my return
Jacqui

 

[jtlover]

I have flown to Orlando with only 2 months left on the passport. We flew with Virgin and it was totally fine . Plus I didn't want to change them as it would mean I would have to pay for the Esta again as it would be different passports

 

[Marl]

We travelled to Florida last August with my passport expiring in September, a few weeks after we got back and DDs passports were expiring in October. No problems at all.
I would also echo what the previous poster said, we had valid ESTAs on those passports and would have had to renew those too if we had renewed our passports early.

 

[sugarcup]

thanks to you all! I will feel happier when thomson reply to my email! Did any of you fly with thompson? I have heard they are not as 'easy going' as virgin!!

 

[Disney Frenhines]

If in any doubt contact the US embassy, they would be able to confirm for you, I am not a fan of Thomson, either online or in their shops as I have had poor advice and answers from them in the past.

 

[sugarcup]

If in any doubt contact the US embassy, they would be able to confirm for you, I am not a fan of Thomson, either online or in their shops as I have had poor advice and answers from them in the past.

I know, thats what worries me! There is no doubt about the US rules, but it is Thompson rules that will decide whether she gets on the plane!

 

[sugarcup]

how is this for a happy ending!! After a sleepless weekend i rang passport office yesterday morning and got straight through. Was given a fast track appointment for next wednesday. We then had a call from thompsons confirming there would be no prob with her passport and they have confirmed that in an email so have cancelled the passport appointment and will renew it when we get back. Thanks for all of your advice folks!!

 

[Jacqui8374]

Well I just wanted to say thanks. Yu raised the question and thanks to all the replies I now rest easy!!!
Jacqui

 

[maclondon]

when you have a return flight and are clearly on holiday i think they use common sense. I think the 6 month thing is because technically you can stay that long or something.

for what its worth, I just had to renew my childs passport on june 30th they received it - I got a text this morning saying it was being printed so 2 weeks turn around. I used the post office check and send which i think helps speed things along.

 

[ROBEAR84]

when you have a return flight and are clearly on holiday i think they use common sense. I think the 6 month thing is because technically you can stay that long or something.

for what its worth, I just had to renew my childs passport on june 30th they received it - I got a text this morning saying it was being printed so 2 weeks turn around. I used the post office check and send which i think helps speed things along.

Sorry to butt in on your post OP (although glad you're sorted! ) but maclondon, I don't suppose you know which passport office your passport went to do you? Ours have gone to Durham and I had the text saying they'd been received on the 26/6 (I also sent them via check and send) but have heard nothing since. I tracked last week but they all just came back as in the 'examination process'. One is a new child passport, other three are all renewals.

 

[maclondon]

Sorry to butt in on your post OP (although glad you're sorted! ) but maclondon, I don't suppose you know which passport office your passport went to do you? Ours have gone to Durham and I had the text saying they'd been received on the 26/6 (I also sent them via check and send) but have heard nothing since. I tracked last week but they all just came back as in the 'examination process'. One is a new child passport, other three are all renewals.

no idea -I live in london and applied via a central london post office.
but doesn't mean much my taxes go to glasgow.

new passports are 6 weeks
renewals 3 weeks - have they lumped them all together?

mac

 

[ROBEAR84]

no idea -I live in london and applied via a central london post office.
but doesn't mean much my taxes go to glasgow.

new passports are 6 weeks
renewals 3 weeks - have they lumped them all together?

mac

No worries, worth asking, thanks for replying anyway

Ours have gone to Durham even though we're in Somerset and our nearest Passport office is Newport which is less than half an hour away!

I think they have lumped them all together, still says 'examination process' when I track online and 3 out of 4 are renewals. Will be 6 weeks this week, fingers crossed they surface soon!