question about passports ...

[dfx]

I'm leaving for Mexico on Friday evening. My passport is valid until mid-August of this year. Yesterday someone told me it has to have six months of validity left on it. Is this true? It doesn't make any sense to me ... if it's valid until August why wouldn't I be able to use it in April?

The rationale is that when you enter the country, you get a visitor's visa (through a stamp in your passport) that's valid for X months. Since on that visa you'd be allowed to stay X months, your passport also needs to be valid for X months.

 

[Tigerman]

The rationale is that when you enter the country, you get a visitor's visa (through a stamp in your passport) that's valid for X months. Since on that visa you'd be allowed to stay X months, your passport also needs to be valid for X months.

Not quite..
Arrival visas for egypt is valid for 2 weeks or a month (2 different ones) and they still require 6 months of passport validity from arrival - in other words 5 months more than the visa is valid for.

I seriously don't see their reasoning except for making people pay for passport renewal more frequently..

 

[dfx]

Not quite..
Arrival visas for egypt is valid for 2 weeks or a month (2 different ones) and they still require 6 months of passport validity from arrival - in other words 5 months more than the visa is valid for.

I seriously don't see their reasoning except for making people pay for passport renewal more frequently..

How would Egypt benefit from making visitors pay for passport renewals more often?

I don't know the details of travel to Egypt, maybe they have reason to believe that you might (legally) stay beyond your visa's allowance. I'm sure there's other exceptions, but the general rule still applies: usually passport validity requirements coincide with visa validity. In any case, it's always a good idea to have a passport that's valid for 6+ months, no matter where you go.

 

[Tigerman]

Theres lots of other countries as well. Malaysia is 3 months tourist visa, 6 months passport validity as well..

I bet its a big conspiracy to make people spend money on passports and then they just share the profits among themselves afterwards

 

[tridacna]

If you think that the 6 month rule is crazy, try South Africa. In addition to the 6 months extended validity, they also require that you have 2 facing blank pages in your passport so that they can insert their grotesque visa sticker on the RHS and use the left for stamps. This is required for each and every visit. I have had to get pages added to my passport several times just to accommodate this stupidity. FWIW, you can ask the US BHP guys not to stamp your passport on return to save space or just use INSPASS like I do and voila no more stamps on this end at all.

 

[KevWind]

If you think that the 6 month rule is crazy, try South Africa. In addition to the 6 months extended validity, they also require that you have 2 facing blank pages in your passport so that they can insert their grotesque visa sticker on the RHS and use the left for stamps. This is required for each and every visit. I have had to get pages added to my passport several times just to accommodate this stupidity. FWIW, you can ask the US BHP guys not to stamp your passport on return to save space or just use INSPASS like I do and voila no more stamps on this end at all.

Russia is a pain also you have fill out a multi page questionnaire with pretty much your life history Then you MUST send your passport to the Russian consulate for them to glue a visa into. All of course well in advance of your trip. Then to top it off when we landed in Kamchatka, Russian customs had 1 person using the Russian equivalent of a Dell 286 computer, it took about 2 hours to get 30 passengers thru customs. So it's permanently scratched off the Bucket list..

 

[dmoore19]

My guess is Bob made it to Mexico. If he hadn't we would have seen a flurry of posts regarding this subject by now.

 

[Tigerman]

My guess is Bob made it to Mexico. If he hadn't we would have seen a flurry of posts regarding this subject by now.

Unless he was hauled straight into the nearest prison to share a cell with T-Bag..

 

[DandyDon]

The rationale is that when you enter the country, you get a visitor's visa (through a stamp in your passport) that's valid for X months. Since on that visa you'd be allowed to stay X months, your passport also needs to be valid for X months.

US citizens (and many others from Europe & Canada) are not required to obtain advance visas, no, but the passport stamp is not all you need either. You get a FFM card that you have to turn in when you leave. I lost one once, was able to obtain a replacement at a Cozumel airport office, but sometimes it's not so easy. From Mexico

Since March 1, 2010, all U.S. citizens – including minors – have been required to present a valid passport or passport card for travel into Mexico. While documents are not routinely checked along the land border, Mexican authorities at immigration checkpoints approximately 20 to 30 kilometers from the border with the U.S. will often conduct vehicle and document inspections and will require valid travel documents and an entry permit or Forma Migratoria Multiple (FMM). All U.S. citizens entering by land and traveling farther than 20 kilometers into Mexico should stop at an immigration checkpoint to obtain an FMM, even if not explicitly directed to do so by Mexican officials. Beyond the 20-30 kilometer border zone, all non-Mexican citizens must have valid immigration documents (FMM, FM2, FM3 or FME) regardless of the original place of entry. Failure to present an FMM when checking in for an international flight departing Mexico can result in delays or missed flights as airlines may insist that a valid FMM be obtained from Mexican immigration authorities (Instituto Nacional de Migración, INM) before issuing a boarding pass.

My guess is Bob made it to Mexico. If he hadn't we would have seen a flurry of posts regarding this subject by now.

Where was he going...?

 

[dmoore19]

He said Mexico, that is all I know.

US citizens (and many others from Europe & Canada) are not required to obtain advance visas, no, but the passport stamp is not all you need either. You get a FFM card that you have to turn in when you leave. I lost one once, was able to obtain a replacement at a Cozumel airport office, but sometimes it's not so easy. From Mexico



Where was he going...?