Do you know when your passport expires?

Definintely a good point. But I question the requirements for France. Its the first I've seen of it and the Canadian government website only states that it must be valid for three months post departure (same as Italy). I wonder why they're different?

France's website states 3months from departure. http://www.france.fr/en/coming-france/what-regulatory-documents-do-i-need-present-entering-francehtml.html

Wouldn't all of the Schengen zone countries have the same requirement?

Joanne,

I don't know why the information differs for France.... As many of the countries in the Schengen area only require one's passport to be valid for at least 3 months beyond one's intended date of departure.

The information I posted is from the official U.S. Department of State/ U.S. Passport & International Travel website.

You may want to refer here for more information regarding the France requirements (updated 2/11/15): http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/country/france.html

Thanks for your insight!

This is a high stakes situation, where the consequences of being wrong may be that you are denied boarding or denied entry and your trip is, literally, ruined. As we saw in the post last week.

In a high stakes situation, where there is some doubt or confusion about the exact rules, most travelers would want to err on the side of caution, I would think.

I always renew mine when the expiration date is one year away. That way, if something is wrong with the new one, I still have several months to get it corrected and get a new one. One of the ladies in the Nashville travel meeting stated she had just moved and could not find her passport since the move. They had a trip planned for early May which they had to cancel as the required time for a new passport is almost 3 months due to backlog. Just not worth ever getting closer than 6 months to have the new one in possession. Everyone that travels a lot pretty well keeps up with the date of expiration, but at my age I seem to have trouble with CRS. If you don't know what CRS is, you are either young and have a good memory or don't know the term "can't remember _ _ _ t.
Better safe than left at the airport.

When in doubt, renew. I still think the US site is incorrect though.

Here's the Canadian information. http://travel.gc.ca/destinations/france Updated April 15, 15

Here's the French information (granted related to getting a visa but still discusses the passport requirements) http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/getting-a-visa/article/faq-visas#sommaire_2

And from Air France. All people travelling to Schengen countries must hold a passport valid 3 months from departure. http://www.airfrance.ca/CA/en/common/guidevoyageur/pratique/visa_document_airfrance.htm

The state department's info is outdated. There is now a uniform rule among all Schengen countries that there has to be three month validity. Before this rule there were also some countries like Germany, Brussels, and Luxembourg that no expiration rule. Passport simply needed to be valid for the duration of the trip.
Now a uniform rule has been set for everyone: three months.

But the reason this rule is now being enforced is that a lot of airports now have these automated check-in machines that passengers have to use. The machines are programmed to check to for the expiration rule 100% of the time. Whereas in the past when the airlines had human agents they would typically blow it off.

My intent was solely to inform, so others would not face the unfortunate... as already mentioned above.

All the information I've included in my post was obtained from the official U.S. Department of State website.

Here is the second paragraph from the website I included above: http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/go/schengen-fact-sheet.html#1

"The European countries that make up the Schengen area are enforcing
the requirement that short-term tourism or business visitors’
passports be valid for at least three months beyond the intended date
of departure from the Schengen area, though adherence varies from
country to country. Some Schengen countries assume all travelers will
stay the full three months allowed for visa-free visitors, meaning you
may not be admitted unless your passport is valid for at least six
months, regardless of the duration of your stay. This requirement may
also apply if you are transiting a Schengen airport for several hours
en route to a non-Schengen destination."

The bottom line... The U. S. Department of State recommends that your passport have at least six months’ validity remaining whenever you travel abroad.

Priscilla, I never realized this was a consideration when traveling to Europe. Thank you for your post.

Suzanne

Error on the side of caution. Renew at 9 years, 6 month. What do you gain by waiting three months? I think this is why some of these discussions get a little side tracked. The deadlines have been reviewed and discussed here frequently.

I know when my passport expires. I don't however know when my driver's license expires. :-)

Suzanne, thanks for the thanks!

Frank, thanks for pointing out the obvious!

Nancy, thanks for your funny remark!

I am always aware of the expiration of the Passport, which is in June 2015. At first, just to get it out of the way, for peace of mind, having one less tedious thing to do, I was going to send in the renewal form/photo/ fee/old passport by the end of Dec 2014. But not so, procrastination took over until mid-March 2015 even though I had reserved a flight SFO to Paris exactly 60 days later. Finally, on 23 March everything required was sent in. It took exactly one month on 23 April for the new passport to arrive. It's better to renew while the old passport is in force.

I do know the expiration. Mine is about two-years away, and I'm already thinking about the steps I need to take to renew! Agree that given the severe consequences of cutting it too close! Just renew starting about 6-9 months out.

.... know when my passport expires. I don't however know when my driver's license expires. ....

Nancy is correct. I have been caught a couple of times with an expired driver license. Now with the smart phones, I have plugged in all of expiration dates and the planned date for renewal, some years in advance.

Frank, that is a brilliant idea! Yes, I too know my passport exp. date but I have just signed up for a RS tour and you have to put that in. I'm with Nancy too, as I don't normally know when my driver's license expires, but looked at it recently when the bank wanted to scan an updated copy.

Putting the info in my phone calendar and if I can figure out the calendar on the newly acquired iPad Mini will add it there!

Remembering the passport expiration is not so bad - every ten years - never changes. But the driver license is another issue. For a long time in another state it was 2 years, then in Colorado it went to ten years, but, if over 65, it is five years. License renewal is kind of a moving target.

My passport won't expire for 8 years and 51 weeks. I just got my new driver's license. In my state, we don't have to remember to renew our licenses because the Secretary of State's office sends us reminders in the mail.

That is what a rich state can do. Probably can renew through the mail. Right now we are reducing our renewal offices in part because we are scared that an illegal might get a driver's license. Can't have that.

I got totally stressed out over this for my trip last fall. My passport was to expire in a few days less than 6 months after my date of entry to France and reading all the comments on trip advisor had me sweating whether to do a rush renewal, but my daughter was already abroad and I really didn't want to be without my passport while she was overseas, in case of emergency. I decided that if they wouldn't let me into France, I would just spend my second week also in London. I even took a copy of a French website that says only 90 days were the rule in case I was stopped. I took the Eurostar to France and there was barely a cursory glance at my passport, and certainly no discussion that the passport needed to valid for 6 months. We had a nice time in France. This was just my experience, and I share it because I was begging for actual experiences of people in the same boat when I was worried last fall. Not suggesting that people don't renew if it keeps them from worrying. I would not mess around with that 90 day requirement though, as I have also heard of people being turned away at the gate of their US to Europe flight. BTW, I am now renewed for the next 10 years!

August 1, 2020

Okay, it was because I was signing up for the Bay of Fundy half marathon today, and since the race crosses an international border, I had to enter passport information (or Can-Am land crossing documentation equivalent) on the entry form.

Doesn't the DMV send a payment notice when you have to renew your driver's license? I always got one in California and in Illinois and here in Israel too, just like they send a notice for vehicle registration renewal. The federal government does not send a notice for passport renewal.

Idaho does not send out DMV notices. As Frank said upthread, more wealthy states are able to do that. Poorer states do not. We do get vehicle registration renewals by mail.

I've lived in 3 states and have never received a renewal notification for a driver's license; vehicle registration yes, DL no. And all 3 states had differing amounts of time that the license was good for so it was hard to remember without looking at it now and then.