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U.S. PASSPORTS

Does anyone know if there are European countries that require that U.S. passports be valid for at least 6 months to be allowed in their country? I plan to go to either Austria or Germany in July or August 2008 for 2 weeks, and my US passport expires in 2/2009. Thanks in advance.

Posted by
9099 posts

Austria requires three months validity. Germany has no expiration rules; your passport simply needs to be valid for the duration of your stay. In practice immigration officers have a lot of discretion when it comes to this. Typically if your from a "rich" nation like the USA they will make an exception even if you are outside the limit.

Posted by
7453 posts

The "Six month rule" seems to be commonly accepted, even if not technically correct. Probably would not hurt to have some firm evidience of requirements before you go, I have heard stories(can't validate) of Airline personnel refusing check-in to persons with less than 6 months, being well informed may ease any problems. Even with all of that, you are comfortably within the window that you should have no issues.

Posted by
14 posts

A good part of my job involves setting up international travel and obtaining visas. The 6 month rule is a good rule to follow. When a visa is necessary your passport must be valid for 6 months. When a visa is not needed, as mentioned in another post, immigration officers have flexibility and you never really know what you will encounter. Immigration officers can you a difficult time over it and what are you going to do? You are not going to argue with them. Why take the chance. If you are leaving in the summer you have plenty of time to renew your passport.

Posted by
486 posts

Renew it now and save yourself he hassle. My wife just renewed her. It took about 2 weeks from the time she mailed it until she got it back.

Posted by
2779 posts

What Michael said about the "rich" nation rule I think is true - even though that's actually a bit said. Both in the US and in Europe there is what we call "good foreigners" and "bad foreigners". There's nothing to do about it but when you really think give it a thought this might be something that should be overcome some day. However, with water becoming a more and more scarce recource on this warming up planet I'm afraid the scissors might be widening up even more...