Canadians - check your passports!

[Rob&Nancy]

There was a story on the cover of our paper this morning, a guy had his cruise booked, and was denied due to the fact that his passport expires in SIX MONTHS! :eek: Apparently there is that possiblity that if your passport is not valid beyond six months of your departure/arrival in the U.S., they can deny you access. There's still time if you need to renew, but be warned - apparently the Passport offices are CHAOS as everyone typically waited until the new laws were actuallly put into place.:rolleyes:

[Cruise or Lose!]

*sigh* Ah, yes, the passport rules. Mine expires in 2007. What a hassle that will be.

 

While I place great value in my Canadian passport, I find all of this a bit hysterical (and I don't mean funny)

[Susan-M]

Rob and Nancy .... advice well worth passing along! We took the 'safe route' in the fall and had our passports renewed prior to our November trip as our passports expired Feb/2007 - and the country we were going to had the 6 month expiry requirement. Not something I would want to test at the airport! No longer a 5 year passport, but a 4 1/2 yr one ;)

[Host Walt]

The six month rule is one established by many countries as a condition of entry. It's not an arbitrary US rule nor is it applied at the whim of the cruiselines.

 

The point of the condition is that the nation one is entering wants to be sure the traveler will be able to return home and will not wind up being stuck in their country until arrangements can be made for a legal re-entry into the USA.

 

It has nothing to do with the new 2007 US rules requiring Passports for all international entry and departure airports this year and the 2008 rules for cruise passengers.

[Cruise or Lose!]

While I understand and respect your post, Host Walt, it's a little jarring when one lives in a sovereign country to be told one has to abide by "foreign" rules set up to assuage "foreign" security concerns. The fact remains that I could get across the border without even so much as a driver's licence 3 months after 9/11.

 

None of this makes us the slightest bit safer. It makes air travel hell and it lulls us into a false sense of security.

[dkjretired]

While I understand and respect your post, Host Walt, it's a little jarring when one lives in a sovereign country to be told one has to abide by "foreign" rules set up to assuage "foreign" security concerns. The fact remains that I could get across the border without even so much as a driver's licence 3 months after 9/11.

 

None of this makes us the slightest bit safer. It makes air travel hell and it lulls us into a false sense of security.

 

The 6 month rule has nothing to do with 9/11, it was in effect prior to 9/11. The rule is applied because you are basically asking for permission to enter the foreign country. Entering that country is a courtesy extending by them. Different rules may apply to those entering the US and Canada but again it is a courtesy to enter the country. The rule in many countries is they have a limit of 6 months stay under most conditions in their country and they want to make sure you passport is not expired after those six months are up. As Walt said, these are not rules set by the US or Canada but by the foreign countries.

[BILLP1]

It also applies to Americans who want to enter Canada...

[Arwenmark]

It also applies to Americans who want to enter Canada...

and if flying out of the country it also applies to Americans wishing to re-enter The United States.

[Dot Cotton]

This rule applies to Americans traveling as well. It depends on where a person is traveling to and what that country's laws require. Many countries require you have at least 6 months left on your passport. I'd suggest everyone, no matter what nationality, always have more than 6 months left on their passports.

[KreinKrunker]

None of this makes us the slightest bit safer. It makes air travel hell and it lulls us into a false sense of security.

I agree!!

[Hondu]

Let's see, we have an Alaskan cruise booked for June 2007 and the passports expire in early Feb 2008. I assume we are enough over six months since we have to stop in Victoria before returning to US?

[JanineM]

We Canadians need to pressure the federal government to make Canadian passports effective for TEN years, instead of the current five years.

 

I'm a dual citizen and my American passport is valid for ten years, but I have to renew the Canadian every five. WHY? I suspect it is just a way for Ottawa to collect more loonies in passport fees. I

 

I have written to PM Harper and a few Alberta MPs (my home province), and hope that other Canadians will do the same!

[Cruise or Lose!]

Hate to disappoint you, but it won't happen. I'm Tory blue all the way, have voted for them since I turned 18 (17 years already!) but they won't do it.

 

Everybody is so worried there will be another 9/11 that our government is willing to bend over backwards to make sure we conform to every single security restrictiion that can possibly be imposed on passengers. We're going to have a no-fly list soon, and my guess is that anybody who even looks Middle Eastern will mysteriously appear on that list.

 

I understand that it is not my right to enter any country. I recognize that is a privilege. However, we're becoming puppets when it comes to security. We dare not question why - and that's sad.

 

[dkjretired]

Hate to disappoint you, but it won't happen. I'm Tory blue all the way, have voted for them since I turned 18 (17 years already!) but they won't do it.

 

Everybody is so worried there will be another 9/11 that our government is willing to bend over backwards to make sure we conform to every single security restrictiion that can possibly be imposed on passengers. We're going to have a no-fly list soon, and my guess is that anybody who even looks Middle Eastern will mysteriously appear on that list.

 

I understand that it is not my right to enter any country. I recognize that is a privilege. However, we're becoming puppets when it comes to security. We dare not question why - and that's sad.

 

 

As I stated earlier, this was in effect long before 9/11.

 

"Originally Posted by Cruise or Lose!

None of this makes us the slightest bit safer. It makes air travel hell and it lulls us into a false sense of security.

 

I agree!!"

 

Doesn't really apply to security and applies to all means of travel.

[Cruise or Lose!]

The point being that the encroachment on our way of life DID begin with 9/11. When my country starts making policy decisions based almost solely on the security interests (demands?) of YOUR country, I have a problem with that. When I have to be at the airport 3 hours before a 3 hour and 20 minute flight, I have a problem with that...etc. etc.

 

However, such are the requirements of air travel these days, and I comply with security because I need to do so to get where I want to go.

 

Not to mention the small matter of not wanting to go to jail :P

 

[Rev22:17]

Cruise or Lose!,

 

While I understand and respect your post, Host Walt, it's a little jarring when one lives in a sovereign country to be told one has to abide by "foreign" rules set up to assuage "foreign" security concerns. The fact remains that I could get across the border without even so much as a driver's licence 3 months after 9/11.

 

None of this makes us the slightest bit safer. It makes air travel hell and it lulls us into a false sense of security.

 

The rule that passports must be valid for six months beyond your planned stay in a foreign country is not new, nor is the United States the only country to impose it. Rather, this rule was in force when I took my first cruise to Europe in 1999. It probably dates back to the days of sail, when passage home may have taken six months.

 

And, fundamentally, a sovereign nation has the absolute right to impose whatever conditions it wishes on visitors. The requirement to have enough time on your passport to cover your passage home certainly is not unreasonable. If you don't like a foreign country's rules, you have the absolute right not to go there.

 

Norm.

[parrothead1]

So, let me get this right - My US Passport expires July 2007 and I am cruising in March. You're telling me that my still valid passport may not be valid?

[Susan-M]

So, let me get this right - My US Passport expires July 2007 and I am cruising in March. You're telling me that my still valid passport may not be valid?

 

It depends on where you are going to and whether the "6 month expiry rule" applies.

[parrothead1]

It depends on where you are going to and whether the "6 month expiry rule" applies.

 

 

Millennium 7 nighter on 3/11 Only going CDC, San Juan, St. Thomas and Nassau.

[dkjretired]

Millennium 7 nighter on 3/11 Only going CDC, San Juan, St. Thomas and Nassau.

 

Parrothead.

 

Check with Celebrity but you should be allright this year, can't say what will happen next year when passports are required. . I say this only because the passport is not required as ID this year and the courtesy would probably be extended.

[dkjretired]

The point being that the encroachment on our way of life DID begin with 9/11. When my country starts making policy decisions based almost solely on the security interests (demands?) of YOUR country, I have a problem with that. When I have to be at the airport 3 hours before a 3 hour and 20 minute flight, I have a problem with that...etc. etc.

 

However, such are the requirements of air travel these days, and I comply with security because I need to do so to get where I want to go.

 

Not to mention the small matter of not wanting to go to jail :P

 

 

Those policy decisions protect your interests also and you certainly have the choice not to fly. May I remind you that it was a female customs agent who caught the man crossing the border from Canada to the US who was heading to LA to take down LAX. If you don't think your country is not vulnerable I would really like you to come to New York and visit the World Trade Center where numerous Canadians were killed. If still unconvinced, perhaps I can sell you a bridge while you are in NYC. This is the reality of the 21st. century and maybe you should enter it.

[cusyl]

So, let me get this right - My US Passport expires July 2007 and I am cruising in March. You're telling me that my still valid passport may not be valid?

Mine also expires in July, I have already sent in my renewal form.:cool:

[Cruise or Lose!]

No, we're not immune. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But the "reality", as you put it, is that there will be another 9/11. If terrorists want to get us that badly, they will get us again.

 

As for Ressam, he could have come from any country in the world. He happened to come from mine. Criminals are tried by a jury of their peers and, if guilty, convicted.

 

Security is a necessary evil, but it is an evil.

[Roland4]

No, we're not immune. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But the "reality", as you put it, is that there will be another 9/11. If terrorists want to get us that badly, they will get us again.

 

As for Ressam, he could have come from any country in the world. He happened to come from mine. Criminals are tried by a jury of their peers and, if guilty, convicted.

 

Security is a necessary evil, but it is an evil.

 

Security is an inconvenience perhaps, and one I am willing to live with. But an "evil"?? That's overdoing it just a tad.

 

Oh, and for what it's worth, we went on our first cruise in 1988 and the "six months validity" rule for passports was in effect then too. The problem is that until about 18 months ago it was never emphasized/enforced. That is why people think it is some sudden, "new" regulation.

[Cruise or Lose!]

OK, I did overstate the case a bit. Security is not "an evil". However, I would say that it is more than a mere inconvenience. It forces us to live in an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, when training officials to spot potential signs of danger would perhaps be more effective.

 

Security procedures didn't protect London, Madrid or Mumbai.