Passport with >6months remaining - Europe trip

[billmurray]

Hi All,

We have an upcoming Italy & London trip booked for end Sept - end Oct. My wifes passport expires mid-March 2025 - which equates to JUST under 6 months reamining on herpassport when we start the trip. How cough will immigartion be about this? Is it a hard & fast rule or some leeway about >6month expiry remaining on passports?

 

[levelnine]

I'm not sure why you'd chance it and create more potential stress for yourself. FWIW, my passport renewal took less than a week to process, so they're doing them pretty quickly atm.

 

[Kerrodt]

Renew it now. You will have to do this anyway upon your return so you might as well do this now and remove this one potential obstacle from your life.

 

[billmurray]

Noted - will renew. Thanks

 

[equus]

Italy & London

There is no leeway, but the requirements are straightforward.

For Italy, Australian passport holders require the passport is valid for a minimum of 3 months beyond the intended stay.
For the United Kingdom, the requirement is simply valid for the period of stay.

You will be fine BUT it is the what else that could happen you need to think about. Where are you transiting (unless on PER-LHR) and what happed in the event of a diversion or delay.

I had less than 6 months left for a trip to the UK, so didn't have to renew. However, the transit (no stop over planned) was SIN. Singapore requires a minimum of 6 months from date of entry. Decided to play safe and renew. As a result when the 2 hours transit turned into a 14 hour overnight due to delays on QF2, was able to enter Singapore to stay at a hotel for the night - if the passport was not renewed, would have been spending a long night in the airport. Other scenarios if diversions occur could be even less convenient.

Just renew it.

 

[Scarlett]

I’ll buck the trend: you meet the rules, so just go and enjoy. If you get diverted so be it, deal with that as it happens… you can’t possibly be expected to plan for every scenario such as having a visa for a diversion into Baku!
If you get delayed in SIN, speak to the SIN authorities at the airport. They all have leeway to deal with operational problems and as long as you can satisfy them you’re legitimate; no problem.

 

[Scr77]

I’d be renewing now. However, I’m also cough enough that the greater than sign in the thread title is stressing me!

 

[Phoenix-1]

Don't know if this is a data point, but I had an overnight layover in SIN with a passport <6 months from expiry (only a few days) and immigration only asked to see the next days ticket before letting me in.

 

[Himeno]

Don't know if this is a data point, but I had an overnight layover in SIN with a passport <6 months from expiry (only a few days) and immigration only asked to see the next days ticket before letting me in.

The last time I entered Singapore (late 2022), the person at the next counter over was being a bit loud about the 6 month issue and how they didn't know and didn't see that requirement mentioned anywhere. They got warned about it and let through after being told to renew their passport when they got home.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi All,

We have an upcoming Italy & London trip booked for end Sept - end Oct. My wifes passport expires mid-March 2025 - which equates to JUST under 6 months reamining on herpassport when we start the trip. How cough will immigartion be about this? Is it a hard & fast rule or some leeway about >6month expiry remaining on passports?

Noting that you have deceived to renew… but it’s not necessarily immigration you need to worry about… it’s airline staff at check-in.

They will follow the rules listed in TIMATIC. If that states more than 6 months is required, you won’t be boarding the aircraft… let alone worrying about what happens when you get to the other end!