I have seen various posts, some saying your passport needs to have 6 months left after the end of your trip. My wife's expires early feb next year,our trip ends Oct 13. I would like to get close to the 10 years out of the passport if possible but want to be legal. rules?

Edited typo at Robert's request.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doru,

According to the website for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy follows the rules for Schengen countries. I couldn't find the answer to your particular question (unless you are travelling on a visa as well as a passport), but maybe you will find it here if you read closely. If not, you might be able to find more information about the Schengen system elsewhere.

The period of validity of a travel document must be greater than that of the visa. The expiry date of the validity must be more than three months from the date of the visa.

I take this to mean that there must be a three-month window

Here's a link to a thread from February with pretty much the same question and links to State Department and other sites.

The state department site is useless for the information. the Italian foreign ministry site says 3 months. I suppose we could just renew it but then you loose 6 months of validity by renewing early.

quote:

I suppose we could just renew it but then you loose 6 months of validity by renewing early.

True, and not including the fee for photos, if you amortize the $67 fee for renewal over 10 years (120 months), you will be out the $3.35 which would be the average cost for those 6 months.

Ok, Kim I get the suble note.I guess I just wonder why a 10 year passport isn't good for 10 years. I suppose we may as well renew. I though it went up to close to 100? RR

quote:

Ok, Kim I get the suble note.I guess I just wonder why a 10 year passport isn't good for 10 years. I suppose we may as well renew. I though it went up to close to 100? RR

I'm just teasing. I think if you have it processed at a service center, like at a library - they add a surcharge and it gets close to 100. We had to do that for the girls b/c with kids both parents have to be there in person, but I was able to do mine through the mail and saved the $30 fee the library charged.

If you think 6 months early is bad, we had to renew Becky's almost 12 months early b/c in that 12 month period there wasn't going to be a window long enough where she wasn't going to be going out of the country in which we felt comfortable having the passport agency holding her old passport. Hard life that kid leads but with kids passports only good for 5 years, that annoyed me.

I agree with Robert. It's not the cost that's the issue, it's the fact that your 10 year passport isn't good for 10 years! It's even worse in Canada, since our passports are only good for 5 years, so I have to renew every 4 and a half years. They should just say that the passport is good for 4 and a half years, not five!

On the other hand, we will be leaving for Paris 3 weeks from today, so guess what I'm focusing on thses days!

Jo (TGIF, everyone!)

Yeah. Cheating you out of the whole 10 years bugs me too. I had not even heard it should be renewed 6 months in advance until we were close to going on a trip. I knew the passport would have to be renewed very soon after we got home but there I was, stuck with a passport soon to expire. I was then too reluctant to send it away, afraid I would have nothing, even if I paid the extra fee to expedite it. Things happen, ya know. Anyway, I made lots of phone calls and looked at lots of sites. Some sites said 3 months, some 6. The airline I was flying eventually said they would let me on the plane and I just had to hope the The Netherlands and Italy would let me in. It turned out to be no problem but I would probably not do it again. Just because of the anxiety it caused me. Perhaps if we just get it straight in our mind that the passport is good for 9 years, it would help.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert Rainey:
I suppose we may as well renew. I though it went up to close to 100? RR

Robert,
I just renewed my passport and a renewal is $67. http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/renew/renew_833.html
For my peace of mind, I paid extra for expedited processing. My new passport was sent to me just over a week after I mailed off the application!

Because of the long delays in processing, if you *don't* pay extra for expediting, I encourage you to send it off as soon as possible for renewal. The current 10-week estimate could stretch out longer. I know you'd want Peg's passport back in plenty of time before your trip.

I don't see this as being cheated out of the 10-year validity by the issuer, the State Department. As far as they're concerned, the passport is good for 10 years. The US (or any other passport issuing country) doesn't control whether other some, but not all, countries have rules about validity beyond the date of entry.

If a passport were valid for 10 years and 6 months, it would still need to be renewed before expiration to enter those countries with the 6-month requirement if it had less than 6 months to run.

Blaming the passport issuer for this is sort of analogous to blaming them because you need to buy a visa to get into many countries, so your passport alone isn't good enough for all foreign travel.

I know I have to live within the rules, but when there seems to be no logic to the rules I don't like it. Can anyone name any situation in modern history when tourists were trapped in Italy for an extra 3 months?

Even if there were some extraordinary circumstance, would the embassy not be open?
RR

Boy you guys are lucky you get 9 years and 6 months, up here we get 4 years and 6 months!! And they cost the same or more like $80.

We can't "renew", we have to start all over again, filling out the forms, getting a guarantor, pictures etc.

Someone at work "heard" that they are thinking of a true "renewal" process where you would just complete a simplfied renewal form and have a new updated picture signed and sent in. Hopefully that would save them a bit of paperwork and time. But we'll see!

Robert, stop expecting (or even hoping for) logic. It'll do you no good and in the end it'll drive you crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert Rainey:
The state department site is useless for the information. the Italian foreign ministry site says 3 months. I suppose we could just renew it but then you loose 6 months of validity by renewing early.

Following this discussion I sent an email to Mr Ed Perkins from smartertravel.com/travel-advice.

For whatever it's worth, and assuming Mr Perkins is indeed an authority on the matter, here is my exchange of emails with him:

My message: "I have heard that Italy requires that tourists come with passports which will still be valid at least 6 months past the date of return to their country.

My passport expires on Jan. 17, 2008; I will travel to Italy in September 2007, returning to Canada on Sept. 29, 2007.

Is there any truth to this story? It seems to me a passport is valid until its expiry date.

Would appreciate your advice."

And Mr Perkins's clear cut reply: "Lots of countries require passports with at least a 6-month ongoing validity.

Although, as I understand it, the 6-month requirement in Italy doesn not apply to short visits, for a visit as long as yours, it does. You need to get your passport renewed before your trip."

Personally, I will follow his advice and renew our passports before departure to Italy.

Mr Perkins gave you all good advise. Many countries do require, i have citizenship from 4 lol! life is a world.

6 mos is the norm, that means when you are to leave the country last visit:your passport needs to be at least 6 mos before expiration.