Have your passport?
Is it good?
Are you sure?
You may not realize it, but your passport has to be valid for a period of six months past the date of your departure, or you will not be allowed out of the United States.
For instance, if your passport expires December 25, and you are leaving the US in May, you should be OK. But if you are leaving the US in June, and for sure anytime after June 24, you will need to renew your passport before you go.
A good friend of mine, heading to Sicily, ran into this exact situation, and sent me an email detailing his experience and his (very expensive) solution.
One interesting note for LaVitaBuono travelers from even before we actually took off:
We took a shuttle from Sonoma County to Oakland airport. Arrived early (1:15) for our 4:55 flight. Went to check in and they wouldn’t let us because B.’s passport was set to expire on July 2nd.
It seems the European Union has a rule that you can’t travel to one of Schengen countries unless your passport is valid for at least 3 months past when your return ticket shows you will leave Europe.
We questioned this since we were scheduled, and ticketed, to return on May 16, six weeks before the passport was going to expire. They said there was nothing they could do, they weren’t able to process her ticket. So, what to do? They had a preprinted sheet that vaguely explained the rule, and gave us the US State Department phone number and address in San Francisco.
We had no phone, so went to the Oakland Tourist info desk and explained our situation… plans for a two week trip, with reservations for accommodations, car rental, theater tickets, etc. and they wouldn’t let us board our flight. They called their Oakland airport connections, and were told they couldn’t do anything. So we used their phone and called the number of the US Dept. of State in SF. They said we had to get B.’s passport renewed.
The office in San Francisco didn’t make appointments on Friday afternoons (even in emergency situations) but if were there, we could try…
Well, by this time it was after 2:00, the check-in counter said we had to be here by 4:00 for our 4:55 flight… So about 2:15 we got in a taxi that took us to downtown SF, the Federal Building on Golden Gate Ave.
We went though the security to go up to the State Department Passport Office while the taxi waited. Explained our situation, begged and pleaded, etc. and they said they would try. So B. went down the street and got passport photos taken while I filled out her application and paid $170 for a rush passport. She got back and signed the application form, they took it all into the back offices and we waited 15 min. or so while they put the actual passport book together.
"The fastest passport they’d ever done," someone said.
By then it was 3:25, we went back to the taxi, he said maybe 45 min. with the traffic to get back to OAK. So we showed up at the check in counter about 4:15 and others were waiting in line, when a woman said we were late, we told her to talk to her partners who knew our situation… and they accepted B.s new passport, checked us in, and we went through the airport security and got to the gate in time to wait about 5 min. before we boarded the plane. So after a two hour adventure with a $180 taxi cab ride from Oakland Airport to downtown SF and back, a 45 min. passport application, photo, and completion, the rest of the trip was all icing on the cake.
Just cautious a word of warning… even though a passport is issued for 10 years and may be set to expire on a certain date … the actual usefulness of it will end before that date. At the passport office they said many countries are instituting a must have proof of return 6 months before the expiration date of a passport rule. They said they had heard Mexico was going to also.
I appreciate this email, because it reminds me that we need to watch the details.
It also reinforces the point I made before: sometimes you just need to turn on the money cannon and spray it full force at the fire of adversity.