Hi. My husband's US passport expires in OCtober 2007. We are going to Peru in June and coming home to the US July 3. The Lonely Planet Guide says that one must hold a passport valid for 6 months after the date of departure (October is 4 months.) Does anyone know how strictly this rule is enforced?
Thanks!
wooglet
2
tunabagel
this is often strictly enforced in many countries though. Why risk it - just get a new passport, you have time dont you?
3
joancrounse
Regular service for a US passport is now running 10-12 weeks. You can get it expedited, but not sure how fast that is and you'll pay extra. You could check with the post office and/or a local travel agent for advice.
4
eeuunikkeiexpat
Interesting, I just checked Timatic, the IATA database the entire travel industry uses and found this clearly specified.
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Passport required (recommended to be valid at least 6 months on arrival).<hr></blockquote>
What this means in practice is that the AIRLINE may refuse issuing you a boarding pass day of departure. As the others have said, Immigrations in most of South America rarely hassle "good passport" holders over nitpicking rules like proof of return/onward ticket and similar.
IME, if you are flying American or Delta, you are at great risk of having your trip disrupted.
Problem is that there is now upwards of a 10 week backlog for passport renewal in the US unless you pay a nice expedite fee, pay an agency even more for expedite or somehow find a way to use the emergency passport issuance loopholes.
6
peejee
I am pretty sure it is not strickly checked (judging from the checks I got at entry) but there is no reason for stress !!! Okay, it ll cost you but you ll have to renew it anyway after this trip, don t you ???
7
goodtimebob
Go with the expedited process. Ten years from now you will know better. You have time if you have the cash.
Pro tip
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