A passport that has not expired is not automatically a passport you can travel on. Many countries require validity beyond your stay, and the airline enforces it at check-in — before any immigration officer sees you.
What the rule says
The common version: your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your date of entry, or in some countries beyond your date of departure from that country.
That distinction matters. Six months beyond entry and six months beyond exit are different dates, and a long trip can sit exactly between them.
Some countries use three months instead of six. Some — often within their own regional bloc — require only that the passport be valid for the stay. There is no universal answer, only the destination's own rule.
How to check your own passport in one minute
- Find your passport's expiry date.
- Find the last date you expect to be in the destination country.
- Count forward six months from that date.
- If your expiry is before that, renew before you apply for the visa.
Renew before applying, not after. A visa issued into a passport you then replace can force you to carry both books, or to transfer the visa — an extra process with its own fee and delay.
Blank pages
Separate from validity, many countries require blank visa pages — usually one to two, sometimes more for a visa sticker. Endorsement pages at the back do not always count. If your passport is nearly full, renew it even if the expiry date is comfortable.
Damage
A water-damaged, torn, or unofficially altered passport can be refused as invalid regardless of the expiry date. If the laminate on the photo page is lifting, treat the passport as expired.
Children's passports
Children's passports are often issued for shorter terms, so a family where the adults are fine can still have one member who fails the rule. Check every passport in the group, not just yours.
Where to confirm the rule for your trip
The authoritative source is the destination country's immigration authority or its embassy for your region. Airline check-in systems generally apply the destination's published rule, which is why the airline can stop a trip that immigration would have allowed.
Before you apply for any visa with us, our eligibility check flags a passport that will not clear the destination's validity rule for your travel dates — so you find out at the start, not at the airport.