My wife and I are traveling to Germany/Austria and Slovakia in December. My passport expires in May 2011. A person on the US passport helpline said that the passport only need to be valid for three months beyond the travel date for Slovakia and that there are no special requirements for Germany or Austria (though they may also require the three months due to the schengen Agreement). The U.S. state department website says the the same thing, though if you scroll to the bottom of the page, it recommends six months. Has anyone ever had a problem with having less than six months left on a passport when traveling to any of these countries? We're flying into Frankfort and taking trains the rest of the way, then flying home from Vienna. Thanks.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9110 posts
From the Slovak D.C. Embassy website (http://tinyurl.com/2chlbka): "...The U.S. citizens bearing the valid U.S. national passport with a validity that exceeds the intended stay by at least 3 months do not need a visa for private, tourist, official or business trip..." According to Germany's DC Embassy website they have no passport expiration rules; your passport simply needs to be valid for the duration of your stay: "...US citizens in possession of a valid US passport do not need a visa for airport transit, tourist or business trips (for stays up to 90 days). The passport must not expire before the end of the scheduled trip..." (http://tinyurl.com/4j8q6q). Austria has a three month rule: "...must be valid at least three (3) months beyond date of travel and must not be older than ten (10) years...." (http://www.austria.org/content/view/40/65/) Since you're entering Europe via Germany, your passport simply needs to be valid for the duration of your stay, as all three countries are part of the Schengen agreement; your passport won't be checked as you travel between them. For what it's worth, I entered the EU via Holland a few years ago with just one month of validity left, and it was never an issue.
Posted by
St. Louis, MO USA
1976 posts
Hi Jim. I was in Europe (Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany) for 5 weeks two years ago and came home at the beginning of August, 3 months before my passport expired. I did some research before my trip to make sure I wouldn't run into any problems and came up with results like Michael Schneider's, for the countries I was visiting. I didn't have any issues at the beginning or end of the trip.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
I left Schengen last night. My passport expires next week. Nobody said squat (except the US gal made a crack about how I was cutting it a little close coming home).
Posted by
OP
Seattle
2 posts
Thanks for the info, everyone. Big help.