My passport expires March 27, 2027
Our flights to Europe are from Aug 18-Sept 15 2026.
So I have slightly more than the required six months from our return date before passport expires.
Should I wait until we return to renew? Or would you recommend to renew before trip?
Absolutely renew now.
Better safe than sorry.
-- Mike Beebe
PASSPORT VALIDITY:
Six months validity recommended, at least 3 months validity beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area is required
https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories.html
You didn't specify where in Europe you are going, so I used Austria as an example as it was quickest to find alphabetically
You’re fine, renew after your trip.
BUT….if this is going to cause you a minute of anxiety, go ahead and renew.
Fly into Poland, out of Munich. No anxiety waiting, I’d probably worry more renewing before our trip.
Schengen requires 3 months, but state department recommends 6.
To renew online your passport must be expiring within one year. So you can renew on March 1. It only takes a few minutes to renew online and they currently say regular processing is 4-6 weeks, but I'm hearing it can be quicker than that. We are taking a Rick Steves tour, and in our documents and also our airline portal, I've been told by both to update/renew my passport.
ps. Make sure you have your appropriate picture ready when you renew...can have someone take it digitally, (meeting their specific requirements) or get it taken at someplace like Postal Annex, Staples, AAA, etc.
Should I wait until we return to renew? Or would you recommend to renew before trip?
My wife and I were recently in this situation. Our passports were due to expire Nov 2026, and we have a vacation planned for April/May 2026, which would end 6.5 months before the expiration.
What tipped the scales was the post-trip vs pre-trip schedule for us. From Dec 25-Mar 26, we ONLY have US plans on the books, but post-trip, we have multiple ideas for Summer/Fall trips outside the US. IOW, if we waited until late-May to start the process (current passports are INVALID immediately when the renewal is submitted), we would be unable to forecast when we could plan a new trip in that renewal window.
So...I submitted our renewal in early Jan, and our renewals were COMPLETE and in our hands by the end of the month.
I suggest looking at your calendar of existing and possible trips and fitting the renewal into those plans. I wouldn't count on it being just a 2-3 week turn-around, but it does seem that over the past several years, folks have seen great improvements in how quickly it gets done.
Update to my response. I renewed online on 2/2 and received my new passport today, 2/13 with regular processing. I would never count on that kind of quick turnaround but it was unexpectedly quick.
It sounds like you are probably good (6+ months from departure), but one thing missed in the discussion, despite what an embassy might indicate or other online sources, the only opinion that matters is that of your airline. If they feel that you are too close to expiration, they won't let you fly, all your research is moot. If they would let you fly, and you were too close, and immigration denies you entry, they are at fault, so they tend to be a bit conservative.
I haven't checked in a while, but each of the major carriers has some online resource to check documentation. A number of them use the IATA site https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/
We renewed ours way before we needed to before our trip last year. We also assumed it might be one of our last overseas trips before the next renewal period.
Did it. Done.
Paul, you are correct and I don’t know why the IATA isn't mentioned more often. I posted it a few weeks ago as a standalone thread and it sort of died where it started.
When your passport is scanned at the ticket counter or the gate, or if the ticketing website wants you to input the information, more often than not, it is being checked against an IATA database for passport expiration date vs the legal requirement in your destination, your nationality vs a visa requirement (if you have no return ticket within the legal time frame you get flagged).
Approximately 85% of all commercial air traffic relies on IATA to one degree or another (some are more automated than others). That means everyone but the likes of Jambojet and Malawi Air.
Every answer on the forum when it comes to these sorts of questions should be go to the IATA website and do what it says.
I like to maximize the full use out of everything, passport, car battery, tooth brush. LOL.
