Southwest Missourians planning travel to Europe should make sure their passports are not approaching their 10-year expiration dates.
The U.S. Department of State is saying countries within the Schengen area comprising 26 European countries are now more strictly enforcing long-established rules that don’t permit international travel when passports only have a few months left of validity.
U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., took the issue to Twitter this month.
“Passport renewal six months prior to expiration is law that has gone without enforcement until recently,” he wrote June 5, including a link to a September State Department explanation on its stance regarding looming expirations and travel to the Schengen area.
Long said he’s heard from a few constituents in recent months with travel concerns, but he declined to name any individuals reporting passport problems.
“I’ve had them caught at the airport and rejected travel, which is very concerning to me because of how expensive it is to travel overseas,” Long told Springfield Business Journal. “I’ve just had it a few times where constituents have been caught totally off guard.”
According to EC.Europa.eu, the Schengen area includes Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. These countries have abolished passport and other types of border control at their common borders, aka internal borders. For international travel purposes, the area mostly functions as a single country with a common visa policy. Named after the Schengen Borders Agreement of 1985, the area encourages the free movement of goods, information, money and people through its travel policies.
Ashley Garrigus, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said Schengen countries for years have refused international travelers when passports are within three months of expiration. While the rule has been in place for some time, she said the State Department has heard from travelers it has become strictly enforced over the past year or so. Pointing to the department’s travel resource website, Travel.State.gov, Garrigus recommends travelers renew their passports within six months of expiration.
She said the Schengen rules center on the traveler’s intended date of departure.
“For those 26 countries in the Schengen area, they require at least three months of validity beyond your intended date of departure,” Garrigus said. “That could be different for any given traveler. If you’re entering and staying for two months, the passport would need to be valid for another three months beyond the date you intend to leave.”
Deana Crouch, director of vacation sales at Adelman Travel Group in Springfield, said the agency has long recommended international travelers keep at least six months’ validity on their passports.
“You never know when you might need to fly through one of those countries on a connecting flight,” Crouch said.
In Russia, for example, six months of passport validity is required. Staying up on the rules is important in the former Soviet Union because there are 86 visa categories, and travelers cannot enter without a valid visa. China also requires six months of passport validity. Many of China’s border regions are considered sensitive areas by local authorities and might be subject to travel limitations, according to Travel.State.gov.
Not all countries have the same requirements, however. In India and Brazil, for example, as long as the passport is valid at the time of entry, the international traveler is accepted.
With U.S. passports valid for 10 years, Garrigus said the State Department is expecting a surge in passport renewals the next couple of years.
According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, 18.4 million passports were issued in 2007 and 16.1 million issued in 2008. That’s between 4 million and 8 million more passports than each of the preceding two years. The 14 million passports issued last year was up 4 percent from 2013.
If an expiration is looming the next few years, Garrigus recommends an early renewal.
“You can renew it at any time,” she said, adding old passports are invalidated once new ones are issued.
“There could be delays coming if there’s a surge in new applications.”
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