passport

[carolyne]

A group of us going to Florida for 2 weeks in April. Can u experts please answer this question. My husbands passport needs renewed in August this year. Does his passport need to be valid for over 6 months to get in on holiday. I would rather get it sorted now than find out at the airport. Have called the passport office but they dont know. I am also presuming we dont need visa's for a 2 week holiday. Am I right? Please help.

[hamptonlakes]

Hi Carolyne,

Welcome to the forum[msnsmile2]

Yes your husband must have atleast 6 months on his passport to travel.

You will be asked to fill out Visa Wavier forms which are given to you when you check in at the airport.

[carolyne]

thanx for that. Better get on the case now to get his new passport on time.
Do we all have to apply for new passports to get into the states after October this year? Bit confused about what I have read and heard on news.
I can picture us all having to go to London to get our finger prints taken and new passports issued, which isnt appealing as far as the cost goes.

[DMC]

Hi Carolyne

Welcome to the forum.

I have a similar problem as your husband in so far as my passport expires just at the wrong time, between our 2 holidays.

It is my understanding that you can apply for a new passport up to 9 months before your existing one expires.

The forms can be obtained from any Major Post Office, also the Post Office offer a "free" checking service, whereby they will double check your forms before you send them, that way you avoid the chance of getting the forms sent back requiring amendments, which will delay matters.

Unless you are planning to visit the Passport Office yourself and get a new passport the same day, I would send it off very soon as they can take several weeks to come through and depending when in April your are planning to go, you might start to cut it a bit fine.

As far as the Visa Wavier Forms are concerned, these are handed out when you check in, they do require some concentration when filling them in, as you have to carefully write within the lines / boxes, otherwise when land in the US if there are any crossings out or mistakes then they give you new forms and send you to the back of the line.

I always find a quiet spot in the departure lounge and complete them over a coffee, that way they are "done and dusted" and if you do make a mistake, then you can get another form when you are on the plane.

No matter how many announcemnets are made during the 9 hour flight about completing the Visa Waiver Forms prior to landing, I am amazed at how many passengers start searching through their bags for a pen and their passports, whilst waiting in line, its very entertaining
[)]

Have a great time.

[DMC]

The changes in October have been a little confusing, but it is my understanding that providing you have an "electronically readable" passport before the 26th of October then you should be ok.

My passport is coming up to 10 years old and mine is ok, so you should be alright.

For any passports issued after the 26th, should have finger prints etc on them, however the British Government are still trying to get the US to relax this for British Citizens as the UK Passport Office won't have the equipment in place to issue the new passports until 2005 at the earliest.

At the moment it is also my understanding that if your passport is issued prior to the 26th then you won't need to get a new one until yours expires in the ususal way.

Hope this helps.

[carolyne]

Thanks DMC

Hubby plans to take a day off work to go to Glasgow (our nearest passport office) to get it sorted.

Good advice about filling the waiver forms in.

Looking forward to our Florida holiday as we last went 6 years ago. To make it even better we have our 5 year old son for his first visit. Dinosaur mad so looking forward to Universal Jurassic type thingy!!!

Thanks again [msnsmile2]

[DMC]

No problems Carolyne

If your son likes animals then a trip to Animal Kingdom is also a real must, there are plenty of things to see and do.

I'm sure you'll have great time

[athurstance]

Assuming your husband enters the US on the Visa Waiver scheme his passport only needs to be valid for 90 days from the date of entry not 6 months so he would be fine.
The following is a link to the US embassy website - the 90 day bit is about 3/4 of the way down the page.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/niv/vwp.htm

[blott]

Here's a previous thread on passports which might help! http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums...?TOPIC_ID=7830

[steph_goodrum]

The other change that could affect you Carolyne is that as a result of having to have machine readable passports all children must have their own passport but I think if your son if 5 he will probably already have his own, I can't remember when they decided in the UK that all children should have their own passports.
The post office service costs around £4-£5 but they guarantee that if you do not have your passport back within 10 working days that fee will be refunded.
Apparently you can renew your passport at any time but 9 months is the maximum credit they will give you against a new one, so it would be valid for 10 years and 9 months. If you have a passport due to expire next year though it may well be worth doing now incase the passport office can't issue biometric ones next summer as they anticipate so you don't need to get a visa.