A 10-year Passport is not a Ten-year Passport

 
Not everyone knows that many governments behave as if a 10-year passport is effectively a 9-year, 5-month document for travel purposes. We cannot fix the way Governments behave, but be alert to the date your passport is expiring, and the fact that when you land in a foreign country, the immigration official may require your passport to have at least 6 months plus the length of your intended stay left on it.

Apparently, many travel agents tell you this. Mine did not, and I did not notice the fine print on page four. On November 4, 2013, I retrieved my passport from the cupboard as I was travelling on November 7. It expired in the third week of April 2014. I thought oh, just around five more months left on it, I better get a new one when I get back. On November 6, the day before I boarded, I kept on trying to do the online check-in with Singapore Airlines. Got great seat allocations. Started to get excited about seeing family and old friends. The online system would not let me do the check-in though. It said that my passport should have at least six months validity left.

I called the airline several times. I got varying answers—but some were that “for travel purposes, the validity of the passport should extend for at least six months beyond the travel dates.” That sentence made no sense to me. “For travel purposes?” The whole idea of the passport is that it is for “travel purposes.” Its expiry date is listed on it and I am getting back almost four months prior to that date. In effect, “for travel purposes,” the expiry date of your principal “travel document” may be a date six months (plus the visitation period) earlier than the date that it says it is.

The Sydney airport official said the same thing on the phone. I had never heard this before. I have travelled fifteen times overseas in my whole life, counting both holidays & business travel—so I am not a frequent traveler, but I am not too infrequent either. When they put me through to Immigration, they said, “We don’t care, we will let you travel but what happens in Singapore (a transit stop with change of planes for the same airline); your destination is your problem. We will let you back in so long as the expiry date has not passed.” Strange—can a country refuse to let its own, law-abiding citizen come back in, because his/her travel document has not been renewed? Welcome to airport living for the rest of your life. But that is not my problem—I want to go away for two weeks and a bit and I have almost five months left on my passport.

I then called the Indian consulate. After a waiting period of forty minutes, I got to a person who said, “Of course, that is a standard condition internationally. Most countries require a passport with at least six months validity when you land.” He says it like I am the only idiot who has not heard of this requirement. The two travel agents I then spoke with said the same thing. Apparently, airlines have this as a policy though one Singapore Airlines official said that she will override the system to let me pass through, but what happens afterward was to be my problem. She was not prepared to send me an e-mail to that effect. Neither was the Immigration official. Just words. No document. Not looking good. “Is this a recorded call?” I say. ‘It may be,” they say. Not good enough.

I must have been living on Mars. Never heard of this, or more likely, never registered it, as most times, passports, which start with a ten-year duration, have many years left on them when you do travel. You glance at it, and you say, “Fine, does not apply to me.” My visa stamp merely says, “should be accompanied by a valid passport.” But the passport condition is independent of the visa. The passport, a travel document, is ‘valid’, but not ‘valid for travel purposes’—go figure. Bureaucrats.

By now the clock had gone well past 3 p.m.—another hour and a bit, the travel agent’s office would close. With less than 24 hours to boarding left, I had to make a call—should I risk being sent home from Sydney airport, or, from Singapore (yes, these rules matter mid-transit as well), or, from the destination? The deeply discounted-fare ticket, if not amended by 5 p.m., or partially travelled on, had a zero refund on it. The only logical option was to pay the extra fee to get the ticket reissued four weeks down the road. Re-do all the appointments taken. Apologize to those affected. It takes two weeks to get a new passport. Two more days to get the visa reissued against the new passport number. I made the call, and then cancelled my travel insurance to get a full refund on that. The bag can stay half-packed, but I cannot sing like John Denver, “My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go, I’m standing here, outside your door…” Except that, I was not leaving on a jet plane anytime soon.

The United States also has this six-month policy. However, it comes with numerous exceptions. About 130 countries may be exempt from the U.S. rule. Some European Union countries will require a validity of three months beyond the date of departure. Surely, that must be the intended date of departure visible on your e-ticket at the time of landing, for one presumes they will not prevent you from leaving—then again, people do pay fines. Many Asian countries, it seems, are very strict about this rule, although, many travel blogs recount stories of hefty fines paid to local officials without a receipt in return. The Canadian Counsel General in Hong Kong is certainly recommending the six-month rule, saying it is aware that Canadians were denied boarding for flights to Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The Singaporean Government is passing on the same advice.

Look at your passport, and ask yourself if you may need to travel at short notice in the last twelve months to expiry date.

Historically, the six-month rule may have been instituted to cover unexpected illness, but it would still not count as rational. Now it is three months, or six months, or six months plus intended stay, or just intended stay—all depends on the country you visit and which country you are a citizen of. Remember that destination countries can change their requirement without notice, so your research may suddenly get outdated. Besides being responsible for taking you back come what may if you are denied entry, airlines can be subject to fines of up to US$4,000 if they let you board improperly. Hence, airlines err on the side of caution when it comes to boarding, but they are unlikely to warn you in time.

Anyway, so now you know. Look at your passport, and ask yourself if you may need to travel at short notice in the last twelve months to expiry date. Set yourself an e-mail calendar reminder if you need it, for your government almost surely will not send you a reminder letter or e-mail in time. For travel purposes, your passport could expire seven months before its expiry date.
 

About the Author: Vinay Kolhatkar

Vinay Kolhatkar is a freelance journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and finance professional. He is the Chief Editor of The Savvy Street. Vinay has authored a TV pilot screenplay Undercover: The Story of Jamila, and two literary thrillers A Sharia London and The Frankenstein Candidate.. He is also the co-author of Media Wars: The Battle to Shape Our Minds. More about Vinay is at the Founder page.