Passport question 6 month rule

[JimLahey]

We are leaving tomorrow to sail out of a US port for a 7 day cruise. Was doing the online check in process on the cruise line website and noticed it said it's strongly recommended that passport must be valid 6 months after cruise. We have one person in our group whose passport expires about 2 weeks short of six months.

When we booked trip and airfares, we checked the US Customs and Border Protection agency's website and confirmed Canadian passports are good until expiry, no 6 month rule. Never occurred to us that a cruise line could be more stringent.

Has anyone been in this situation? Can this cause problems? Or are we fretting over nothing?

[mom says]

6 minutes ago, JimLahey said:

on the cruise line website and noticed it said it's strongly recommended that passport must be valid 6 months after cruise.

Does the website say its strongly recommended,  or does it say it must be valid for 6 months? Because in the first case, you're fine; it's just a recommendation.  In the second case, you may have a problem.

 

Entry into the US isn't the issue. It may be one or more of the port stops that require the extra validity period.

[JimLahey]

3 minutes ago, mom says said:

Does the website say its strongly recommended,  or does it say it must be valid for 6 months? Because in the first case, you're fine; it's just a recommendation.  In the second case, you may have a problem.

 

Entry into the US isn't the issue. It may be one or more of the port stops that require the extra validity period.

 

Actually both....when we entered passport info, looks liek it noticed the date and gave a message saying "Strongly recommenced", but elsewhere on their website, it said "The passport must be valid for six months after the day your cruise ends. ". Hoping it said Strongly Recommended as it noticed it is Canadian. Ports are Mexico, which says it doesn't have 6 month rule and Honduras, which says it does.

[Fouremco]

Unfortunately, the Honduras have a 6-month requirement: "Your passport must be valid at least 6 months from the date of entry." https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/honduras#entryexit

 

Some countries apply different rules to cruise passengers, but if the Honduras don't make an exception for cruisers, your friend will not be allowed to board. I'd suggest that you phone the embassy in Ottawa today to determine whether or not they would allow entry for a cruise passenger with  less than 6 months validity remaining. The number is: 613) 233-8900.

[JimLahey]

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

Unfortunately, the Honduras have a 6-month requirement: "Your passport must be valid at least 6 months from the date of entry." https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/honduras#entryexit

 

Some countries apply different rules to cruise passengers, but if the Honduras don't make an exception for cruisers, your friend will not be allowed to board. I'd suggest that you phone the embassy in Ottawa today to determine whether or not they would allow entry for a cruise passenger with  less than 6 months validity remaining. The number is: 613) 233-8900.

Thank you for the tip…I called the embassy and they said that if on cruise and staying less than 24 hours, then no issues with a passport expiring in 5 and a half months. What a relief!

[Tango99]

Edit to add “Oh. Tomorrow. So to add now I see your destinations include Honduras….your friend could be flagged to stay on board when the ship ports in Honduras. Fingers crossed”  Hope you can get a renewal quickly. There may be issues with the airline (depending which one) as you won’t have a US address to supply when you check in for your flight. And If the expiry falls within the actual cruise you may have issues with the cruise physical check in. Last year my partner’s passport and the 6 month rule meant expiry 2 days before the end of our 3 week cruise (Carnival) and he was notified by email a week after e-checkin that he’d need to to provide a passport valid for the sailing or be denied boarding…even though we were going TA from Florida to Europe destinations that have a 3 month requirement. Thankful we are in Ottawa and could get passport renewed. It was close as he received the notice the day before Good Friday and Easter Monday. And Tuesday the city was shut down due to a snowstorm. We picked it up Wednesday and flew as planned the next day. On our cruise over Christmas in the S Caribbean we had to present passport at almost all of the gates to get back on the cruise ship (NCL). Fingers crossed that you get a good agent at the port check in….I’m told that person can be the key on boarding or not. 

Edited March 21 by Tango99

[CDNPolar]

We cruise a lot and travel a lot.

 

We renew our passports for 10 years to avoid issues like this.

 

Our passports expire early 2026.  We have already mapped out on the calendar between trips when we will renew our passports so that we don't run into issues.

 

This is just part of travel planning for us.

 

We have experience through friends where boarding was denied.

[mom says]

The OP should be on his way to Florida. Hopefully he will come back and let us know how the boarding went.

[JimLahey]

Hi all

It was actually my wife with the passport expiring in 5.5 months. Happy to say we got on ship today with no issues at all! Was worried all weekend, but now time to relax with a drink!

[JillK]

Thanks for getting back to let us know that there were no issues. I always thought the 6 month requirement was because that is the length of of time that we as Canadians can stay in the US per visit (six month casual travel visa) after which we would be there "illegally."

 

Meanwhile, I am planning for our August cruise to the Med with some of the kids passports that are expiring 5 months after travel. According to the government of Canada website, they have a 3 month requirement so fingers crossed our experience ends up as seamless as yours! 

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, JillK said:

I always thought the 6 month requirement was because that is the length of of time that we as Canadians can stay in the US per visit (six month casual travel visa) after which we would be there "illegally."

Canadian visitors are generally granted a stay in the US for up to six months at the time of entry, but a requests to extend your stay can be made to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Your passport must remain valid for the duration of the stay, whether it's six months or longer.

[CDNPolar]

11 hours ago, JillK said:

Thanks for getting back to let us know that there were no issues. I always thought the 6 month requirement was because that is the length of of time that we as Canadians can stay in the US per visit (six month casual travel visa) after which we would be there "illegally."

 

Meanwhile, I am planning for our August cruise to the Med with some of the kids passports that are expiring 5 months after travel. According to the government of Canada website, they have a 3 month requirement so fingers crossed our experience ends up as seamless as yours! 

 

Personally I don't know that I would risk this.

 

Some countries are quite strict about this and the airline is not going to stop you from flying, but the cruise ship may deny you boarding, if they don't highlight it before you even depart.

 

If the Canadian government site is telling you that the countries you are visiting require 6 months and you don't have that, then I would be worried.

 

You are laying out a lot of money to have this stop your trip, especially since you have the time now to renew.

[JillK]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Personally I don't know that I would risk this.

 

Some countries are quite strict about this and the airline is not going to stop you from flying, but the cruise ship may deny you boarding, if they don't highlight it before you even depart.

 

If the Canadian government site is telling you that the countries you are visiting require 6 months and you don't have that, then I would be worried.

 

You are laying out a lot of money to have this stop your trip, especially since you have the time now to renew.

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

The Government of Canada says 3 months (Italy, Greece and Malta) and two passports expire 5 months from travel dates. I'm just so used to following the 6 month rule that I'm still uneasy and may just get them renewed ahead of travel anyhow. 

[CDNPolar]

4 minutes ago, JillK said:

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

The Government of Canada says 3 months (Italy, Greece and Malta) and two passports expire 5 months from travel dates. I'm just so used to following the 6 month rule that I'm still uneasy and may just get them renewed ahead of travel anyhow. 

 

Do renew them... different countries have different rules.  Never assume the 6 months.  We generally start our passport renewal just inside the one year of expiry so we never have this issue.  We also do 10 year renewals and especially since these are kids, get the 10 year option.

 

You could have the cruise line refuse you boarding because it is not just that you can say, we won't disembark in these ports.  Cruise lines don't have effective ways to stop you, but also most countries get the passenger manifest in advance so they already know you are non-compliant.  This could cause you all sorts of issues.

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, JillK said:

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

The Government of Canada says 3 months (Italy, Greece and Malta) and two passports expire 5 months from travel dates. I'm just so used to following the 6 month rule that I'm still uneasy and may just get them renewed ahead of travel anyhow. 

Italy, Greece and Malta are all Schengen area countries, so your passports need only be valid for 3 months beyond your departure date from the area. All of the 27 individual countries comprising the Schengen area share common entry and exit requirements, including the 3-month period of validity for passports.

 

We normally renew our passports early to ensure that we have at least 6 months validity left, just in case of a last minute decision to travel to a country requiring 6 months. You will be fine with your current passports, but go ahead and renew them if you want to for peace of mind.

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We also do 10 year renewals and especially since these are kids, get the 10 year option.

Kids don’t have the option of a 10 year passport. From ages 3-15 it is 5 years, under 3 only 3 years.

 

 

[JillK]

 

On 3/25/2024 at 9:48 AM, Fouremco said:

Italy, Greece and Malta are all Schengen area countries, so your passports need only be valid for 3 months beyond your departure date from the area. All of the 27 individual countries comprising the Schengen area share common entry and exit requirements, including the 3-month period of validity for passports.

 

We normally renew our passports early to ensure that we have at least 6 months validity left, just in case of a last minute decision to travel to a country requiring 6 months. You will be fine with your current passports, but go ahead and renew them if you want to for peace of mind.

 

Frankly the other reason I'm considering early renewal is that my sons have changed so much over those 4 1/2 years that their current passport photos I don't even look like them anymore which I suppose could be an issue if a passport control agent decided it was an issue. 

 

On 3/25/2024 at 11:12 AM, gnome12 said:

Kids don’t have the option of a 10 year passport. From ages 3-15 it is 5 years, under 3 only 3 years.

 

 

 

Yes exactly right! My daughter will be turning 18 in a month so I am inclined to wait to renew hers until after her birthday so that we can get her the 10 year version!  

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, JillK said:

Yes exactly right! My daughter will be turning 18 in a month so I am inclined to wait to renew hers until after her birthday so that we can get her the 10 year version!  

She is already an adult for a passport. Adults are ages 16+. Children are up to 15.

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, JillK said:

 

 

Frankly the other reason I'm considering early renewal is that my sons have changed so much over those 4 1/2 years that their current passport photos I don't even look like them anymore which I suppose could be an issue if a passport control agent decided it was an issue. 

 

 

Yes exactly right! My daughter will be turning 18 in a month so I am inclined to wait to renew hers until after her birthday so that we can get her the 10 year version!  

I think that you'll find that immigration officials are very well attuned to the fact that children bear less resemblance to their passport photos with the passage of time. The same with adults, for that matter. My current passport photo was taken when I had a moustache, but I've travelled with it when clean shaven and with a full beard. 

 

As for your daughter, as @gnome12 points out, the age of eligibility for an adult passport is 16, not 18. 

 

Will either of your sons turn 16 between the end of your August cruise and your next trip out of the country? If so, it would be worthwhile waiting until their birthday and getting an adult passport.