Passport Expiry Worries

[john watson]

Is the UK really that lax? If so, then I will stop worrying about him getting over there. Hopefully the cruise ships are lax as well. What could go wrong?

 

To be honest I was being sarcastic. The United Kingdom is very security conscious and in light of the various incidents recently I can foresee the authorities here getting even tougher as well as the regulations. SO seems to think if agreement with the cruise line is secured things will be fine, however my concern is that you might not reach Southampton. The immigration and Border Force staff at London Heathrow might send the passenger straight back with a £2000 fine to the airline for permitting boarding at the original airport. Having a letter from the cruise line at that stage is not going to be relevant.

 

You are staking $4000 or whatever on this trips success and in my opinion, knowingly being outside regulations is foolhardy. Any official of higher rank at the cruise line or the airport could refuse acceptance, in addition if you are lucky you might get an interview at Heathrow for a couple of hours. If SO is a bit stroppy in any way they may drag that interview out significantly. Have you got at least one day in UK prior to boarding? Will everyone be happy proceeding without SO? As I said, sarcastically, what could go wrong? We all learn by expensive mistakes but a wise man learns by others mistakes.

 

Hope all goes well in the end.

 

Kind Regards John

[Lizzyanne]

I wonder if SO realizes that should a bureaucratic type in a bad mood be encountered, not only will the entire cruise cost be forfeit but only a true angel will allow the incident to be forgotten when the S in SO reappears.

We have just returned from Crown Princess, my husband was told in no uncertain terms that he just had enough left on his passport- he had 6months 11days at our return date. It was a rather grumpy lady so I agree with the above comments.

[upwarduk]

We have just returned from Crown Princess, my husband was told in no uncertain terms that he just had enough left on his passport- he had 6months 11days at our return date. It was a rather grumpy lady so I agree with the above comments.

 

Also be aware that maybe the 'grumpy lady' won't be able to over ride what the computer tells her!

[Lizzyanne]

Also be aware that maybe the 'grumpy lady' won't be able to over ride what the computer tells her!

There are still friendly ways to speak to people:)

[casofilia]

Try balancing 3 cruises, two passports, ESTAs and Canadian ETAs to make sure all are viable throughout the period of the 3 cruises!!

We just bit the bullet and did everything early and forgot the cost; minimal when you are paying $15000 for 3 long cruises.

[Corfe Mixture]

The one thing we have drummed into us in the UK is that you do not try to debate right and wrong with US border control, you do not smile, you do not make jokes or do anything other than you are told as they have the ultimate weapon - DENIAL OF ENTRY.

 

OK we are a somewhat more relaxed in terms of personal interaction / friendly conversation with border control officers, but the bottom line is that they have the same ultimate weapon and if they become at all concerned that you may not be intending to leave the country a within the time frame, then you could be delayed for many hours whilst they arrange for you to be returned to your home country ON THE NEXT AVAILABLE FLIGHT - at your expense.

 

By all means take the risk, you may get away with it, but if you don't you can expect about as much sympathy on here as we would get from your SO if we arrived in the US without a current ESTA.

 

 

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[capriccio]

He should be more worried about whether he can get on a plane.

 

True, Princess can say anything but that doesn't mean that the air carrier will agree. The US State Department has a video on "the importance of having six month's validity left on your passport" at https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html. US Travelers should also take a look at the country information in that same section ("Passports and International Travel") of the Department's website.

[whatcruiseisnext]

No need to worry about border control. Your SO other won't make it onto the plane. He will be denied boarding. This happened a few weeks ago to a friend of mine. Denied boarding at the airport. Another time a relative who drove to the cruise port was denied embarking on the ship because her passport expired 5 1/2 months after her return. When you enter his information into the personalizer it tells you this. Believe it! Someone that answers the phone at Princess has no authority to go above that. Notes in the reservation mean diddly squat. Of course he would be allowed to fill out paperwork at the pier... holding up those behind him as he takes the time to do it then. But once they realize his passport is not valid for 6 months after the return he will have 0% chance of being allowed to board.

 

 

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Edited July 7, 2017 by whatcruiseisnext

[laktex]

Does anyone have any actual experience with this situation? This is a well-travelled group, and would just like recommendations and actual stories of what has occurred in real life situations. My plan is to try to encourage him to renew the passport, but if he continues to refuse, then I will have him prepare a notarized letter allowing me to travel out of the country with our 10 year old son, who is most excited about this trip. We'd love for (DS) SO to be with us on this trip, but I can't see us all having to stay home because of this preventable, unpredictable problem.

 

Sorry this is so long, and appreciate any input. TIA!

Why on earth take the risk. Renew the passport!! - I presume the authorities extend the validity of the passport in a similar manner to the UK? - if so there is nothing lost and peace of mind to gain.

[Colo Cruiser]

Why on earth take the risk. Renew the passport!! - I presume the authorities extend the validity of the passport in a similar manner to the UK? - if so there is nothing lost and peace of mind to gain.

 

 

I agree. Not sure what the resistance is in many threads to just getting one. :confused:

[hawkeyetlse]

Why on earth take the risk. Renew the passport!! - I presume the authorities extend the validity of the passport in a similar manner to the UK? - if so there is nothing lost and peace of mind to gain.

No, as caribill explained above, the US does not add the leftover months of validity to the new passport (and having a passport with more than 10 years validity can be potentially problematic, too, because some countries also technically say that your passport cannot be more than 10 years old). So Americans that renew their passports "early" do simply lose the leftover time. But even if it costs you $200 to renew, that's $20 a year, so it's really not a huge expense compared to the cost of the international travel that you need the passport for in the first place.

[kmorg1234]

To be honest I was being sarcastic. The United Kingdom is very security conscious and in light of the various incidents recently I can foresee the authorities here getting even tougher as well as the regulations. SO seems to think if agreement with the cruise line is secured things will be fine, however my concern is that you might not reach Southampton. The immigration and Border Force staff at London Heathrow might send the passenger straight back with a £2000 fine to the airline for permitting boarding at the original airport. Having a letter from the cruise line at that stage is not going to be relevant.

 

You are staking $4000 or whatever on this trips success and in my opinion, knowingly being outside regulations is foolhardy. Any official of higher rank at the cruise line or the airport could refuse acceptance, in addition if you are lucky you might get an interview at Heathrow for a couple of hours. If SO is a bit stroppy in any way they may drag that interview out significantly. Have you got at least one day in UK prior to boarding? Will everyone be happy proceeding without SO? As I said, sarcastically, what could go wrong? We all learn by expensive mistakes but a wise man learns by others mistakes.

 

Hope all goes well in the end.

 

Kind Regards John

 

Hi Jon,

 

I did kind of think you were engaging in sarcasm but was not 100% sure- thanks for spelling it all out. I had not considered the personal interview scenario either- I've heard that those "parties" are not the fun kind, though! Immigration and Border Control are no joke, in my book. I take no chances with all of that business- too much to lose. Hopefully with all of these replies, he will start to come around, and will do the right thing in the end. Problem is that he has no real skin in the game- if our roles were reversed, he'd surely be hopping mad at me.

 

Thanks everyone for their input and all of the info!

[CorgiNole]

Honestly - he has spent more time arguing with Princess than it would have taken to get the picture, and mail his passport in. Princess's terms of service are 6 months left on the passport. Believe them.

 

The way I might phrase it to him is along the lines of - do you really want to spend the next 6 weeks worrying about getting on the ship, worrying about having to argue with the gate agent, leaving us wondering if you will be left behind?

 

Currently a passport costs $110 - so $11/year - which means that by renewing 6 months early - he is losing a grand total of $5.50 in value. (I'm not including the photo and mailing costs as part of the 10 year value). Is it really worth $5.50 to risk several thousand in lost vacation fees just to be "right?" There would be no refunds from either Princess or from your trip insurance - as travel documents are the responsibility of the traveler.

 

I renewed mine a year early as I was concerned that I didn't have enough pages left - and though that was before they stopped adding pages - it would have cost $85 to add the pages which I could use for a year versus $110 to just get a new passport. One of the members of our research group flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg - and then immediately back to Atlanta as she was denied entry into South Africa for lack of pages. This was a regular trip for her, and she should have been aware.

 

Please encourage him to go ahead and get a new passport so that you don't have the stress hanging over all of you as you plan what should be an awesome trip. Although - at this point, I think he may need to pony up the additional funds to expedite. I had to expedite my son's as we had to wait several weeks to get an appointment for him (mom fail) - and it still took nearly 3 weeks to come back to us.

 

Good luck.

[CorgiNole]

Why on earth take the risk. Renew the passport!! - I presume the authorities extend the validity of the passport in a similar manner to the UK? - if so there is nothing lost and peace of mind to gain.

 

I realized when I renewed my passport last year, that I got a brand new number - even though the old one had not expired. So, US passports do not renew in the same manner as UK passports.

[jefa]

Has SO said just why he won't renew his passport early?

 

British passports also get a new number when renewed.

[ggprincess2004]

Extremely high probability you will be traveling without him. The 6 month thing is for real. They mean it.

[kmorg1234]

Has SO said just why he won't renew his passport early?

 

British passports also get a new number when renewed.

 

He says it is because the State Department website states that the 3 month leeway time is the requirement, and that the 6 months is just a recommendation, so he doesn't feel that it is a necessity. Obviously, I don't feel the same way, and think that any agent can deny him entry no matter what the actual law is. And as I quietly mentioned before, he has no financial skin in the game, so I have no doubt that influences his thinking.

 

I have no problem hearing "I told you so" for the rest of my life with him, but my son would surely be dissappointed if he was not able to sail with us. Rest assured, though, that we would still have a blast on this amazing trip!

[CorgiNole]

Is he willing to reimburse you for his expenses when he gets left behind? As you know, just because the State Department says one thing, it does not mean that a NON-US company has to honor it. I believe Princess is a foreign flagged carrier. He is being a twit (but you know that already).

 

ETA - Go ahead and get the letter notarized so that your child doesn't miss out on the trip because his Dad isn't present.

[thinfool]

Don't pursue the issue directly. Instead do as suggested, if he is the father of your son, get the notarized form and have him sign it.

 

And insist on his input for a plan B. Possibly reservations at a hotel where he can stay while you and your son take the cruise.

 

That way your stress is minimized and you won't have to wonder how things turned out for him while you are sailing.

 

And, just possibly, this will gently nudge him in the direction of renewing, although if this is for August '17, time is very short to do so.

[RDC1]

He says it is because the State Department website states that the 3 month leeway time is the requirement, and that the 6 months is just a recommendation, so he doesn't feel that it is a necessity. Obviously, I don't feel the same way, and think that any agent can deny him entry no matter what the actual law is. And as I quietly mentioned before, he has no financial skin in the game, so I have no doubt that influences his thinking.

 

I have no problem hearing "I told you so" for the rest of my life with him, but my son would surely be dissappointed if he was not able to sail with us. Rest assured, though, that we would still have a blast on this amazing trip!

 

The problem is that you are dealing with a number of entities. Again as I mentioned earlier what he is likely to run into is the EU law that says that you must have 3 months left when you depart, couple with the 90 day visa length (assumed 90 day stay), which means that he must have 6 months at time of entry, which he will not have. As such the airline might refuse boarding. Though because you are flying in the UK instead of a Schengen area country, he might get on to the plane. However, if your cruise calls on one of the Schengen countries the odds are high that he wan't make it onto the ship.

 

 

So your worst case scenerio is that he has to find a hotel and pay for his stay in England (not cheap) while the rest of you enjoy the cruise. Risk of those costs vs the cost of early renewal is rather obvious.

[capriccio]

He says it is because the State Department website states that the 3 month leeway time is the requirement, and that the 6 months is just a recommendation, so he doesn't feel that it is a necessity.

 

It sounds to me like your SO isn't really comitted to this trip unfortunately. Have him show you the "recommendation" on the Department's website. Here is what I found and it is quite explicit (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/checklist.html):

 

Europe Travel

via Canada and UK

– Europe’s

26 Schengen countries

strictly enforce the six-month validity rule. If you are transiting through Canada or the UK – which do not have that requirement – your passport must be valid at least six months or airlines may not let you board your onward flight to Europe.

 

 

[Charles4515]

He says it is because the State Department website states that the 3 month leeway time is the requirement, and that the 6 months is just a recommendation, so he doesn't feel that it is a necessity. Obviously, I don't feel the same way, and think that any agent can deny him entry no matter what the actual law is. And as I quietly mentioned before, he has no financial skin in the game, so I have no doubt that influences his thinking.

 

I have no problem hearing "I told you so" for the rest of my life with him, but my son would surely be dissappointed if he was not able to sail with us. Rest assured, though, that we would still have a blast on this amazing trip!

 

He won't have any problem at immigration in the UK or the Schengen countries if the 3 months is correct. Where he might or might not have an issue is the airline or Princesss agents. When the Princess check in agent does his paperwork likely that expire message will come up. Some agents be as obstinate as your husband. In this case he is right about the law. But being wrong does not deter obstinate agents. People have posted on Cruise Critic about being denied boarding by the cruise line when they were in the right about passports and visa's. or thought they were right.

[Charles4515]

The problem is that you are dealing with a number of entities. Again as I mentioned earlier what he is likely to run into is the EU law that says that you must have 3 months left when you depart, couple with the 90 day visa length (assumed 90 day stay), which means that he must have 6 months at time of entry, which he will not have. As such the airline might refuse boarding. Though because you are flying in the UK instead of a Schengen area country, he might get on to the plane. However, if your cruise calls on one of the Schengen countries the odds are high that he wan't make it onto the ship.

 

 

So your worst case scenerio is that he has to find a hotel and pay for his stay in England (not cheap) while the rest of you enjoy the cruise. Risk of those costs vs the cost of early renewal is rather obvious.

 

The cruise does call in the Schengen countries. I am on that same sailing and Princess has informed us we have to bring a copy of our passport page to the check in at Southampton and that we will have to show it at immigration control at the port of Zeebrugge. It certainly is not worth the risk.

[san diego sue]

We also are on that cruise. Our passport would have expired in December. We got a new passport so we aren't faced with any issues.Easy to do and peace of mind. At this point he will need to pay extra for quicker service or it can take up to 4 weeks or more to receive passport back. I wouldn't pay for a family member if they are taking the risk with my money.This isn't even being stubborn, it is just not smart on his part.

[broberts]

He says it is because the State Department website states that the 3 month leeway time is the requirement, and that the 6 months is just a recommendation, so he doesn't feel that it is a necessity. ....

 

One wonders why he is not taking the State Department's recommendation. It seems to me that it has vastly more experience with and knowledge of US citizens traveling to Europe. (I know, preaching to the choir.)