# Why are passports no good within six months of expiration? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2021, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-passports-no-good-within-six-months-of-expiration/930434 "2021-01-13T11:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 41
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-passports-no-good-within-six-months-of-expiration/930434/41 "2021-01-14T15:19:33Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So if I try to visit (say) France with a passport that will expire in five months the French authorities will refuse me entry? I don’t know that France specifically has the 6-month requirement for US passport holders. But if they do, then yes. > [@UDS1](#): > > And if you are denied entry, the carrier that brought you there has the responsibility for bringing you away again. Which, even if they might ultimately recover the cost from you, is a pain and a hassle and a risk they’d rather not expose themselves to. So they don’t bring you there in the first place. > > (And, the airline is probably not going to make the distinct between somebody seeking to travel to France on a close-to-expiry passport of another EU member state, and someone on a close-to-expiry passport from a third country.) Per our passenger service folks, we have a gigantic table in the database of every combo of passport and destination and all the details on who requires what for how long. The “6 months” thing is a generic rule of thumb for humans. The computer is far more fussy. > [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Never, ever piss off immigration officials. I only have 1 story about immigration follies, but it was fun. For me, if not for the guest star. Back in the day before boarding passes were scanned by a computer before you get down the jetbridge, it was common enough for somebody to get on the wrong flight. If it wasn’t full, the seat assignment for the correct flight might still work on the wrong flight, or the two folks mistakenly both in 14B would sort out a solution with or without FA involvement, but in any case with nobody updating any computers. So one day in a raging snowstorm we launch off from the hub bound for Cancun 3 hours late. For us it’s fly down about 4-1/2 hours, hang out 90 minutes on board the plane then fly the same plane back. So planned for about a 12-hour workday including our pre- and post- duties. Plus the delay = 15 hours. We don’t deal with immigration or customs at all as long as we stay on the plane. We get about halfway there and the FA notifies us we have a passenger aboard who was going to Des Moines, not Cancun. I corrected her: “Nope, he’s going to Cancun, _then_ back to the hub, _then_ to Des Moines.” This came to light when they started passing out the Mexican immigration / customs entry forms and the passenger freaked out. Of course, being a generic American who’d _never_ want to travel internationally he has no passport. Not just not carrying one on his person, but has never had one issued in his life. Pre-9/11 & pre-TSA that was real common. We notify Cancun we’ve got this problem coming their way. On arrival our ground team tells us to identify the passenger before they let anyone else off. Our staffer is accompanied by two armed officials who looked exactly like every cheapo movie’s idea of a corrupt 3rd World customs / border policeman. Bad moustaches, big intimidating hats & badges, too much firepower, etc. They escort the passenger off while the rest of the crowd ogles this major international crime figure being taken down. Before northbound boarding began this guy was the very first person aboard, escorted back onto the airplane by the same two goons. I found out later the pax spent the 90 ground minutes locked in a small concrete cell in the terminal. We get the guy back to snow country in time to miss the last flight to Des Moines. And of course since the airline is disrupted, by that hour the local hotels are full of other disrupted passengers. Last I heard he was planning on sleeping in the terminal. So much for fun in the sun for him. How’d he get on our flight? The flight to Des Moines was originally supposed to leave from that gate at about the time we did. But we were late and the Des Moines flight had been moved elsewhere. He never checked the terminal gate info screens, just trusted his paper boarding pass issued many hours before at whichever airport he had started his day at. He also paid zero attention to any of the many PAs during boarding. This was all before fancy phones, text messages, airline apps, and all the rest. FTR I’ve never had an issue with the professionalism of any nation’s border officials. They _are_ going to follow their rules, not your mistaken impression of their rules. But if you come into it with that attitude, everything seems to work smoothly. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Right – this touches back on the OP question – my passport **is** valid up to the expiration date for the purpose of the US State Department identifying me as a citizen, and “request[ing] all whom it may concern to permit the citizen of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.” > > The country I am traveling to OTOH as a sovereign state can make its own rules as to under what terms and conditions they’ll entertain that request. 'Zactly. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-passports-no-good-within-six-months-of-expiration/930434)._