Hi,
Our whole family is traveling to Europe on 6/17/17.
One leg of our trip is Italy.
The US State website says passports need to have at least 6 months of validity to be able to be allowed entrance to Italy.
I checked the Italian Foreign Affairs website and it says 3 months just like France.
What is the correct info?
My US passport expires this October.
Help!
Wherever you enter the Schengen area is where your passport will be stamped. Once in you can travel freely between countries without having to show your passport.
Just make sure you have at least three months of validity after your planned departure date. If not, get your passport renewed. You have time.
The Canadian government recommends (and BTW, the US Customs "requires" us Canucks) to have 6 months left before expiry. Not sure about Italy, but seems like one less question to deal with if you renew. If you don't, how's your Italian?
You say "One leg of our trip is Italy.", from which will you be entering Italy?
If it is from another Schengen Area country, then there will not be a passport check (but if flying, the airline will want to see your passport as in ID check).
You passport will be checked, and if necessary, depending on your nationality, stamped, when you enter the Schengen Area. Your "90 days in any 180" time limit will start then.
It is 6 months for most countries, and the airline/TSA might not let you on board with a nearly-expired passport. Last time I went through security with my kids, they showed their passports as ID. (They don't need to, we just do it anyway.) The passports had a month and change on them. The TSA guard said something about it.
Better get them renewed and you won't have any problems.
Just to be clear:
When entering the US on a Canadian passport, "Canadian Citizens' passports are NOT required to be valid for six months past their intended date of departure. Their passports must only be valid up until the date of their intended departure."
Six months is better when traveling to Europe, but the airline you fly and the country you will be flying into have the final say.
Italy says 3 months past your exit date (not arrival date!). So it will be up to your airline on the day you fly if they are feeling generous or having a bad day. If it was me, I would go ahead and get the renewal removing any iffyness.
The US State Department website is overly cautious. The expiry requirement is uniform throughout the Schengen zone and it is 3 months after your exit date.
TSA personnel are responsible for checking the validity of a passport but not for monitoring the period of validity. The above comment on a child's passport was likely a reminder to get it renewed.
The airline is responsible for checking the validity of your passport as well, but as long as it meets the actual Schengen requirement (not the State Department version) there is no reason they would deny you boarding.
Our last trip to Italy I had 4 1/2 months left on my passport (travel in October, passport expired in February) and no one questioned it. And this was with a one-way ticket!
I have always renewed at the 6 month mark. Schengen requires 6 months not 3. They allot 90 days entry...it doesn't matter if you are only staying a week or two...they require 90 days validity PAST the 90 day entry period. Read the article from NYT below.
Especially now with all the extra layers of security and scrutiny..why ruin your trip with such a large party!
Think of it as a way to get new snazzy photos taken! CHEESE!
Enjoy your trip!
That New York Times article has it wrong.
It says, "'The rules say three months validity from the time of entry. It's a little complicated because they routinely give you 90 days to stay. So you really need six months' validity on your passport,'. Ms. Sprague said.
So she admits to the three months but gets it wrong---it is three months validity from time of planned departure from the Schengen zone.
That is what it says on the State Department website for Schengen counties:
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/schengen-fact-sheet.html
And that is consistent with the EU Regulation 610/2013, enacted in 2013.
http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/545b82c14.pdf
Open the PDF and scroll down to the bottom of Page 4 and top of Page 5.
Maybe it is possible for individual EU members to have a longer period; according to some information above, the State Department says 6 months for Italy ( but the OP says the Italy government site says 3 months). Seems like the Italy site should accurately state the rule.
But note that it is 3 months after departure, not entry. If one is planning on staying in the Schengen zone for 90 days then you do need six months left on your passport.
I agree with Sasha that the six-month advice ( which you will see in many articles in addition to the NYT one) is routinely given out of an abundance of caution. But one should always distinguish between what is required and what is recommended.
A bit more. . .
If you work through the " do I need a visa" questions on the visitoperitalia.esteri.it website, it will say that a US citizen and resident, visiting for 90 days or less for tourism, only needs a passport valid for "at least three months" past the expected date of departure from the Schengen zone.
If you get an airline person or worse yet someone in immigration who decides to enforce it as 90 days past the Schengen visa waiver period then you are on your way home or not boarding the flight. The reason for 6 mos is that American on entry to Schengen have 90 days allowed stay; 90 more days past the last time you could leave is 6 mos.
If I were in your situation, I would bite the bullet and pay for expedited renewal.
Then your costs are fixed and you do not have to choose among the comments made here as to which one is "correct".
What are your costs if you are denied entry to wherever it is you are going?
I agree.
It makes sense to get a new passport just to be on the safe side.
The problem that I have now is that the earliest appointment time (Passport Agency Office) that I'm able to get is on Thursday June 15th - that's 2 days before I leave! 😩
I will try to line up tomorrow in the San Francisco office eventhough their website is very clear that I need an appointment.
Any ideas?
Thank you all for your time.
I booked a last-minute trip a few years ago to Paris, and my passport still had my married name from my divorce a couple of years before that. I went to the passport office in NYC and arrived just as they opened. I got in line, explained my situation, and was able to pick up my new passport a day or two later. Make sure to have compliant photos and fill the forms out ahead of time to save time. They understand the circumstances.
What is the actual date of your return from Europe, and the expiration date on your passport? Assuming you have a roundtrip ticket that shows you are leaving Schengen zone by early July, and your passport expires in late October ( more than three months after your return date), the airline would be wrong to deny you boarding as you are fully compliant with the Schengen regulation. Wrongful denial of boarding subjects them to a rather large fine, so they are very careful about that.
Yes, it would be safest to get a new passport, but you may have left it to rather late. There is a procedure for emergency last-minute renewal (like overnight) but you have to qualify for that and I do not know the rules. You can keep checking for quicker appointments---and did you let them know you "may" have a problem with your expiry date?
I find Flyertalk a reliable source of information for questions like this. According to people in the British Airways forum, most airlines use the TIMATIC system to check passports for validity according to country you are flying to.
You can find it online. http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/home.htm
I ran through it for a hypothetical trip to Italy, arriving 18 June and staying until 10 July, flying on Alitalia. I put in a passport expiration date of 15 October, 3 months and 5 days after you return. It says you are fine.
Something else to consider---where are you actually flying to first? And how do you get to Italy? If you are flying into the U.K., for example, they don't care about Schengen rules. Or if you fly into France, they have a 3-month rule even according to the State Department. And if you arrive in Italy by train, no one in Italy will look at your passport. So you may not need to worry about Italy at all, in spite of what the State Department says about six months. ( How does the State Department Page reconcile 6 months for Italy with 3 months for Schengen???)
Hi, Sasha,
Thanks for all the info.
We're flying into London then taking a train to Paris, then Nice.
After that, we're flying from Nice to Rome.
Generally, if you have a ticket showing travel within 2 weeks they will give you an appointment...in NYC I have just shown up with all my proof of travel and current passport....you might wait but it will get done...
Good luck
With that schedule you will go through French immigration in London prior to boarding the train. After that no more further checks other than ID when boarding the airplane.
Flying into London is not a problem! The requirement there is you have a passport valid for the time you are in the UK. Since you are not staying in the UK for 6 months you are fine. There is zero chance the airline will deny you boarding.
From London to Paris by train it is also not a problem. France only requires 3 months on your passport and you have that.
From Nice to Italy is an internal domestic flight between Schengen countries where the issue should not arise.
Honestly, I think people have caused you unnecessary alarm by posting irrelevant information. The so-called " 6 month rule" does apply in some Asian countries but not in the Schengen zone. Please try to relax and look forward to your trip.
Yeah the UK doesn't have an expiration rule for passports so your current passport is kosher if you're entering via the UK. There's no reason to get an expedited passport renewal.
