passport question, help!

[weswife]

Hi,

My passport expires Feb. 2012. Today I purchased my flights. Upon reading all the fine print on my receipt, I noticed something. It said passports must be valid until 6 months after return!!!! YIKES!!!!!! I then went to a Canadian site in regard to passports and it states passports must be valid until return. My date of return is Dec. 5 so we would be ok! Anyone know the answer. I feel stressed and no place is open to call and ask. Of course its a holiday on Fri. I only have 2 weeks before the trip!!!!! Geeee feeling stressed!

 

[papertraveller]

Assuming your trip is to WDW, and thus to the U.S. It's my understanding that your passport needs to be valid for your trip there -- the six-month requirement does not apply to the U.S.

If you dig around on these boards, you will find another thread with more thorough information than mine. But with a Feb. expiry and a trip in the next two weeks, you will surely be fine.

And fyi for renewals, I submitted mine last week and it was a pleasantly painless process. They promise 10-day turnaround (I took mine in to the office).

 

[weswife]

thanks for the quick answer! I feel a bit better, I will keep looking!

 

[chimo2u]

WHEW!! Good to hear the answer....but something is seriously wrong with the posting order on the boards this afternoon! ....In any event, My passports expire in Dec 2012.....and our trip is OCT 2012, so I hope they will be fine, as we too are squeezing this trip in under the wire of expiration!!

 

[weswife]

WHEW!! Good to hear the answer....but something is seriously wrong with the posting order on the boards this afternoon! ....In any event, My passports expire in Dec 2012.....and our trip is OCT 2012, so I hope they will be fine, as we too are squeezing this trip in under the wire of expiration!!

Same as us! I was worried!!

 

[3pletprincesses]

FYI I had to renew the girls passports ad brought them to hte office and received them less then a week later although I had not paid for rush.

 

[tink1969]

WHEW!! Good to hear the answer....but something is seriously wrong with the posting order on the boards this afternoon! ....In any event, My passports expire in Dec 2012.....and our trip is OCT 2012, so I hope they will be fine, as we too are squeezing this trip in under the wire of expiration!!

Why not get them renewed early then?

 

[tink1969]

FYI I had to renew the girls passports ad brought them to hte office and received them less then a week later although I had not paid for rush.

I just renewed my two daughter's passports. Went to office on October 28th and received them November 7th. They didn't expire until February 2012 but I wasn't going to risk the chance of them being denied at the border. You never know!

 

[monkey30]

call the airline and ask, they would know more, or even customs.

Good luck

 

[chimo2u]

Why not get them renewed early then?

Because, my oldest son is now an adult, and it would be 100$ .... my youngest son, however won't be 16 until March 2012, I admit, I thought about renewing it early so I can slide his renewal in under the child pricing.....
I really don't want to shell out money for passports on top of the trip costs if I don't have to, I won't be travelling out of country again with them until 2014, so if their current passports are ok, then I'd rather just get one more trip out of them.

 

[drag n' fly]

As long as your passport is good going in and coming back you will never have a problem. The 6 month rule only applies to travel everywhere except the US.

 

[rewok]

Like a few others said, no problem using your Canadian passport to the US, even if it expires within 6 months. It just needs to be valid for the lenght of your stay (a few extra days on top would be a better idea, in case anything happens...) per the US CPB website. We've done it several times (both DH & I), so I can confirm that it's not just a theory. Don't want to lose 6 months on each passport, while not super uber expensive, they are still costly. I do have to renew my passport now, since it expires mid January, and I don't want to do that during Christmas vacation time.

As a side note, many countries do not require the 6 months, it always pays to look the information directly on the country border agency. For eg, UK doesn't ask for that, neither France (aka all Schengen area) I think. Looked them up recently, since we were there a few months ago...

 

[chimo2u]

Like a few others said, no problem using your Canadian passport to the US, even if it expires within 6 months. It just needs to be valid for the lenght of your stay (a few extra days on top would be a better idea, in case anything happens...) per the US CPB website. We've done it several times (both DH & I), so I can confirm that it's not just a theory. Don't want to lose 6 months on each passport, while not super uber expensive, they are still costly. I do have to renew my passport now, since it expires mid January, and I don't want to do that during Christmas vacation time.

As a side note, many countries do not require the 6 months, it always pays to look the information directly on the country border agency. For eg, UK doesn't ask for that, neither France (aka all Schengen area) I think. Looked them up recently, since we were there a few months ago...

I think I will be renewing my youngest son's and losing out on 9 months of his pp, but it's worth it.....I will get it renewed at the child price (37$) and save 50$ if I do it before he turns 16 worth it in this case, I think

 

[rewok]

I think I will be renewing my youngest son's and losing out on 9 months of his pp, but it's worth it.....I will get it renewed at the child price (37$) and save 50$ if I do it before he turns 16 worth it in this case, I think

Good thinking! However, just a warning, they might bug you at the passport office and ask why you want to renew so early (and I don't think saving money is a valid excuse for them, just for us working folks...).

 

[chimo2u]

Good thinking! However, just a warning, they might bug you at the passport office and ask why you want to renew so early (and I don't think saving money is a valid excuse for them, just for us working folks...).

Hi ReWok I read online when the earliest you can renew is....It stated withing 12 months of expiry, you do loose out on the missed months, but I am ok with that.....Also, if they make an issue of it, I would just state that it is because we have a fall trip, and I want to make sure I have a passport with lots of time remaining on it (as it was origianally set to expire in mid december).....I should be fine, the PP website made it seem like renewing anytime between 0-12 months prior to expiry is a normal occurance
Saving $50 bucks will just be a positive side effect for us!