Passport query
 

Quick one I'd appreciate some advice on.

Am travelling to the US next week. I will be returning on 5 July. My passport expires on 31 July.

I have checked and this doesn't cause a problem from a US immigration perspective - the "6 months validity post your visit" rule doesn't apply to UK citizens apparently. No problem as long as you have left by the expiry date on the passport.

To make sure that I didn't end up having a fight with an ill-informed member of BA check in staff, I decided to email them in advance to check that BA did not have its OWN policy on passport validity. The question I asked them was simple: as long as I satisfy the conditions for the country I am visiting for entry, please would you confirm that BA does not impose any additional requirements?

What I got back was an ill-thought out, robotic response, simply telling me that BA cannot advise on Visa requirements. That's not what I asked.

Can anyone here please give me some comfort that I am not going to have a problem at check in? I really, really don't want to have to renew my passport at short notice - it will be hugely inconvenient.

Many thanks.

Your own research certainly seems correct:

https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/non-i...vel-documents/

If you are travelling with an ESTA under the VWP then your "Admit Until" date will be the expiry date of your passport, rather than the usual 90 days.

You should be fine as long as your return date is before your passport expires, which in this case it is. If I were you, I would take some print outs from the US Consulate in the UK showing this rule, in case some BA staff annoy you at the airport.

I think you should be fine. I wouldn't even raise it with BA. Check the US CBP page and print it out. If you have any problems show them the printout and they can raise it with a supervisor.

Edited to add; here you go, https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/fi...20Update_0.pdf

Just checking that you have your ESTA sorted out already (you don't mention it).

Many thanks to you all. Yes I have an ESTA which expires on the same day as the passport!

This is no problem whatsoever. Just remember that even though the US allows you to leave the same day your passport expires, you will most likely arrive back home the day after you depart, so in practice, you will want to leave no later than the day your passport expires.

As I understand things, the BA agents at Heathrow will just go by what Timatic tells them, so that's the best place to check.

In this case, it looks like you're fine:

:eek:Don't you mean "you will want to leave no later than the day before your passport expires"?

As far as I know you can enter the UK on an expired UK passport although I've no idea if there's a time limit attached to that rule. Says I whose UK passport expired last month.

If you're a UK citizen they cannot refuse you entry (but there might be a substantial delay while they confirm you are who you say you are ;) )

(This also holds, in general, for EEA citizens - if you don't have a passport you should not automatically be denied entry but should be given the opportunity to prove your identity "by other means".)

Technically if you are a UK citizen you can enter with no passport at all (lets say you lose it on the plane)

as long as you can prove who you are!

You can, although the UKBF will potentially confiscate it.

Which would make renew nearly impossible or do you declare it as stolen?

I recently had an ESTA which was due to expire shortly after my entry flight (in fact whilst still in the US) and I was asked to produce a printed copy at the check-in counter. This was on AA.