The general rule when traveling internationally is that you need at least 6 months of validity on your passport to be allowed to enter a country. Some nations allow you to have 6 months left on it from the day you enter. But others require you to have 6 months from the day you depart. It just depends on the country.
However, there are a handful of countries that allow you to have less than 6 months left on your passport and still visit them:
Armenia
Passport must be valid at time of entry and departure. However if your flight(s) have a stopover in any of the Schengen countries, your passport will then need to be valid for at least 3 months past your departure date.
The Bahamas
Your passport must be valid at time of entry. Two pages are required for entry stamp.
Barbados
Passport must be valid at time of entry. Must have one blank page for entry stamp.
Canada
Passport must be valid at time of entry. If you’re transiting Canada en route to Europe, your passport must be valid for at least 3 months beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area. Must have one blank page.
Croatia
Passport must be valid for three months after the planned date of departure. One page is required for an entry stamp.
Ireland
Passport must be valid for the duration of your stay in Ireland and must have at least one page.
Mexico
Passport must be valid at time of entry. Must have one blank page per stamp.
The Schengen Region
Officially, you’re only supposed to need 3 months to enter the 26 Schengen Countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland). However, the rules for each country vary in terms of passport requirements.
These are the Schengen Region countries that allow a passport with less than 6 months left (but keep in mind that if you’re traveling through one of the countries that require 6 months – i.e. a stopover in Austria [which requires 6 months beyond your planned departure date] to get to Belgium [which only requires 3 months], you’ll still need 6 months on your passport):
- Belgium – Passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area and must have 2 pages minimum.
- Estonia – Passport should be valid for at least three months beyond your stay, with 1 page per entry stamp.
- France – Passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area and must have at least one blank page for stamps.
- Germany – Passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area and must have 2 pages.
- Hungary – Passport required to have three months validity beyond planned departure date from the Schengen area (although six months validity is recommended) and must have 1 page per stamp.
- Iceland – Three months required, six months recommended beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area, and two pages required for entry stamp.
- Italy – Six months validity recommended. At least 3 months validity beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area and two pages required for entry stamp.
- Malta – Passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your planned date of departure from the Schengen area and must have one page for entry stamp.
- Netherlands – A passport must be valid for at least three months beyond the planned date of departure from the Schengen area. Two pages required for entry stamp.
- Poland – Six months remaining validity strongly recommended; at least three months remaining validity beyond planned departure from the Schengen area is required.
- Slovenia – Six months recommended; at least three months beyond your planned departure from the Schengen area. One page required for entry stamp.
- Spain – 6 months recommended, 3 months beyond your date of departure is required, and 1 page per stamp.
- Sweden – Passport must be valid at least three months beyond the period of stay, and have space for entry and exit stamps.
The Seychelles
Passport must be valid for duration of stay and one blank page required.
United Kingdom
Passport must be valid for the duration of your stay in the United Kingdom (At least six months remaining validity is required for onward travel to many other countries). Must have one blank page.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to international travel than just having a passport that’s still valid for X amount of time.
- Some countries require visas or visa waivers (the Schengen Region countries will require a visa waiver from U.S. residents relatively soon, although its launch has been delayed), sometimes based on the length of your stay, sometimes just to enter the country.
- Thanks to COVID, some countries are not open to U.S. citizens right now, whereas others are only accepting visitors if they’re fully vaccinated (which is partially why the vaccinated and unvaccinated are traveling to different places). And that information is constantly changing.
You can check the State Department’s website for specifics.
But if you have less than 6 months left on your passport and want to go SOMEWHERE before you send it to the State Department for renewal (and let it languish for upwards of 18 weeks), at least you know where you may be able to go.
Feature Photo: pxfuel
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