How often should you check your passport expiry date?
Reviewed
The short answer
every year
Once a year. The check takes seconds and leaves room for a renewal that can run into weeks.
Expiry is rarely the real deadline. The date a country will accept usually falls months earlier.
The six-month rule
A large number of destinations ask for validity of at least six months beyond the intended date of return. A passport valid on the day of travel can still be refused at check-in.
Airlines apply the rule at the gate because they carry the cost of a refused entry. Arguing the point at the desk rarely works.
Blank pages and stamps
Some countries require two facing blank pages for entry and exit stamps. A well travelled passport can run out of room before it runs out of time.
Pages cannot be added to a modern biometric passport. A full one gets replaced.
Renewal timing
Processing times swing with the season, and spring is the peak almost everywhere. Starting six months ahead of a planned trip absorbs most of that variation.
Remaining validity on the old document is often carried over up to a set limit, so renewing early costs less time than it appears to.
Common questions
Do children need their own passport?
Every traveller holds an individual document, whatever their age, and child passports run for shorter terms than adult ones. Two passports in one family can therefore fall due in different years.
What about a damaged passport?
Water damage, a loose cover or an unreadable chip can each lead to refusal at a border. A passport in poor condition gets replaced on the same footing as an expired one.
This reminder, in IAlwaysForget
« check the passport expiry date every year »
- Understood as
- Recurring reminder
- Comes back
- every year