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Traveling to the Netherlands

Posted by (Richmond, VA, USA) on

My wife are I are traveling to the UK, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands in May. I recently noticed that the Netherlands requires that passports be valid for at least 90 days after leaving the country. Ours expire 30 days after leaving the country. We are traveling to the Netherlands by train.

Does anyone know how closely passport expiration dates are examined, and what would happen if we have a passport that is not valid for 90 days. Would we be kicked off the train? We can make an appointment to get an expedited passport but it seems a lot of trouble for just one country.

Bob

Posted by
9100 posts

Be advised that the UK, France, and Belgium have the same 90 day rule. So you should be most worried about the country you are entering into Europe. But in practice immigration officers have a lot of discretion when enforcing this rule, and if your from a "rich" country like the US they can make exceptions. Back in 2006, I started a Euro vacation at Schipol Airport Amsterdam with only 60 days validity and either the immigration officer didn't notice or didn't care, and there was no problem. When I flew back to the US from Frankfurt there was no problem as well.

Posted by
4 posts

I have a friend that needed to go overseas for work. He had his visa and was at the airport to leave. When he checked in at the ticket counter, they would not let him leave as his passport expired 1 day short of the required valid time. It expired 89 days from the day he was supposed to leave. So, it may not be at the arrival airport where it will be checked, but the departure airport. Good luck.

Posted by
23273 posts

It is a dice roll. The big issue is they don't what you passport to expire while in country should something cause an unexpected delay. And it is not one country. It is all of them.

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