I want to thank everyone for this topic. I had forgotten my passport was inside the six months to expiration point, and I have a Singapore trip in a couple of weeks.

That could have been ugly.

While it is not often stated, you can travel with your passport right until its expiration, especially if you are travelling to a country that you do NOT need a prior visa for. A good example is SIN where for example they will only let you stay 90 days. As long as your passport is valid to that point, that is all they care about.

I had 2 inserts taped into my passport at the American Consulate in Barbados yesturday. It was fast and free...my 4th insert in 4 yrs. Great service..they have a special line for U.S. citizens. It is getting quite thick..next time I'll get a 48 page passport. Does anybody know if the agency repairs the picture page? The corners have been bent and the plastic coating is peeling a bit..I would like to keep it till it expires in 2008..I have 129 pages now (including inside back cover).issued 07/98

Nope. If the plastic comes off the passport is toast, I had that problem with my last one. The problem will get worse as immigration officials from certain countries (especially Germany) will start trying to lift the plastic to see if you tampered with it, of course this makes it get worse and worse. The general rule is that once the peeling plastic reaches the picture you should get a new one, otherwise you'll start to have problems.

Only the corners are peeling...not near pix yet...I hope I can keep it...many , great stamps I would love to keep all my travels..(Burma)..Viet Nam..Cambodia. Laos, India.Thailand... etc.
memories..I know a new passport would be blank...gotta make it last..Can I iron the corners? Or is there a thermal activated detection?. Thanks in advance.

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MRKEY

At least when you renew your passport they'll send the old one back - albeit with a hole punched through it.

129 pages? I'm amazed.

Yep..It is quite full..129 pages after the 2 last inserts..Immigration officers often give me strange looks..but I never have had a problem ..they just say "Do you ever stay at home?" http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

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MRKEY

My child's passport will expire in June. We leave next week for SIN, HKG, and DPS. Visas are not required for any of them. We'll leave those countries in January, but there will still be only about 4 1/2 months left on the passport. The adult passports are fine. How risky will it be to proceed without renewing?

The whole "at least 6 months of valadity" is a scam becuase it forces you to get a new passport at 9 1/2 years. It would be more honest to sell you a ten year passport that expires in 10 years and 6 months.

Why, it's not our government requiring you to hvae that, you can come back with a passport right up to it's expiration date. It's the country you are visiting.

And to make it worse, a child's passport is only good for five years. This is my kid's second passport already.

Just did a mileage run to France outbound on 20Feb03 and return on 24Feb03. Passport expired on 25Feb03. The TA on the outbound leg at UA checked on it but otherwise no problem. Now I have to renew before a trip on 24Mar03, has anyone used the expedite/ prepaid mailer service lately.

The state dept. web site shows passport offices where you can go in person, saying that they are for people departing within 14 days. I have a trip planned within 2 weeks, so I'm planning on going with my current passport, even though it'll expire just a couple of weeks after I return. (Visiting Ireland and UK, hope they're cool with that!)

Two questions I have are:

1) How fast do the domestic offices (thinking of the one here in downtown Chicago) turn this around? Is it still the two weeks of expedited service or faster?

2) Do I need to have a flight booked in order to get this service? Anyone do this in person just because they wanted to minimize their time without a passport and was told that they should just mail it in?

cnk

This may not help anyone for super fast service, but my renewal passport was just turned around by the national passport office within 3 weeks. Mailed on 23 January, issued 6 February, received, eh, probably 10 February but might have been there on the 8th. (It was mailed to a PO Box not open Saturdays.) It helps for transit time that the office is here in town, but 3 weeks at this time of year would be reasonable turnaround. I mailed at 6 weeks before my trip. Shorter than 4 weeks, you may not wish to chance it.

An aunt of mine who has citizenship from a country that requiers visas to the US applied for a visa at one of our consulates and was denied the visa to visit her daughter(although she has made trips here before and never stayed for more than 2 months despite having 6 month visas in the past) on the grounds that her passport was expiring later this year. The request was denied on the basis of her passport expiring within 6 months if one looks at the sheet the consular official returned with passport and they wanted to see a copy of her son's visa, although it was her daughter (not some phantom son) she was interested in visiting. Obviously, our illustrious Foreign Service Officer needs to go to a remedial mathematics and reading course. Her passport expires on December 27, 2003, and she applied for the visa on Feb. 15th, 2003. Looks like at least a couple of months beyond 6. Her daughter did not undergo a surgery to become a son, as far as I know, but maybe the consular officials like "genetic screening". Fools, I tell you.

Her plans are now to go to Canada or Mexico and vacation there or in the Caribbean with her daughter.