my daughter will be 15 when her passport comes up for renewal in March next year. will she only be able to renew it for 5 years again or are we better waiting until she has turned 16 in April and she can renew it for 10 years?
Also at the moment her passport is machine readable, (issued March 2003) will she need to get a visa to travel to USA in 2008 or will her new passport cover her? We live in Scotland so I don't know how easy it is to get a visa up here!
Thanks
Elaine
Elaine
If your daughter doesn't need her passport until she's 16 it may be as well to wait.
By the end of this summer all new passports issued are supposed to be biometric and if you wait till next year they almost certainly should have ironed out the technology by then. If the chip is included in the passport there will be no need for a visa as her passport will continue to fulfill all requirenments for using the visa waiver system.
Our daughters expired a month before her 16th birthday and we were only able to renew for 5 years so she had to wait till earlier this year (now almost 21) for her first 10 year passport (but when you complete the form it is counted as a renewal if the current passport is still valid.
If you do not need it immediately you can wait until about June when your daughter will be 16 and then have the full 9 months remaining validity added to her passport so it will be valid for 10years and 9 months.
Babblin Boo
sounds like it's better to wait. She is 16 next April by which time her passport will have been expired for about 6 weeks. Should this cause us problems in so far as we are not renewing it whilst it still has some time to run?
Elaine
No, the current passport is fine to use up until it expires as it was issued before the change to digital photos and biometrics. It just needs to be valid for the whole of any trip to the US.
blott
It might be worth renewing it early if you find that the charges for new passports are going up again. It is possible to get a new passport up to 9 months in advance and any time left on the old one is added onto the end of the expiry date of the new one so you do not lose time but would gain in saved fees.
We waited untill my daughter was 16 so she could get her own passport that she could sign as an adult. We did apply about a month in advance, all the odds and ends came through straight away and her new passport arrived the day after her birthday.
A good service from the passport office.
Nigel
A renewal before the age of 16 will always be issued as a 5 year childs passport
Stupid really as in your case you daughter could then end up still being able to travel on a childs passport until the age of 20 !!
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by blott
No, the current passport is fine to use up until it expires as it was issued before the change to digital photos and biometrics. It just needs to be valid for the whole of any trip to the US.
[/quote]
We have 6 months left on our passports, Blott, and I have lost count of the number of people who have warned us that we will not be able to use it any more. For example we always have to show it when visiting our daughter on board her ship and each time they say 'your passport needs renewing' - from what you say it IS usable, even in the US, although obviously we will be getting new ones soon anyway, as we don't want any problems.
I wonder why people say the passport is invalid if it has less than 6 months left on it.
ellie
Ellie, that used to be the rule for US visits (that it had to have 6 months after your visit left to the expiry date) but it's no longer the case. However, having said that some airlines, etc do still have that requirement (for some reason of their own which they haven't confided to me!).
Official US Immigration policy is now that, as long as it's still valid for your stay, you no longer need six months left on it.
blott
Thanks very much, Blott, a definitive answer as always. [clap] That is most useful information.
ellie
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