Saturday morning I wasn’t allowed to board a flight
to Cambodia because there’s less than six months
left on my passport.
Jeeez this is news to me, but I find doing a little
research that it’s common.
My question is; Is this common knowledge
(does everyone know this but me)?
It’s certainly news to me, and not good news either.
I learned about this when a friend and I travelled to Hawaii many years ago and my friend was grilled for hours by the US immigration people for only having 2 months validity on his passport. They weren’t going to let him into the US, it took a call to the NZ consulate in Honolulu to get in! And this was a NZ diplomatic passport!!!
[quote=“old canuck”]Saturday morning I wasn’t allowed to board a flight
to Cambodia because there’s less than six months
left on my passport.
Jeeez this is news to me, but I find doing a little
research that it’s common.
My question is; Is this common knowledge
(does everyone know this but me)?[/quote]
I am afraid it is.
It’s common practice in most countries … you can’t enter with less than 6 months on your passport … airlines prevent you to board because when they do and you are turned away at your destination the airline needs to put up the ticket for your return …
It is common knowledge, or at least it is to me.
Thing is it is so freaking stupid. Why not just issue passports with 9 and half years then and run them up to the last day? Stupid!
HG
Right, stupid … 6 months +1 day will do … 6 months -1 day won’t …
Which remembers me that I need to apply for a new passport this month … 
It’s pretty common knowledge among experienced travelers. Most countries, as far as I know, follow this practice, including Taiwan. One major exception is returning to one’s own country.
I was told this quite firmly on my first trip. I took it seriously but some people still forgot. Caused a big stir in Bali after a 1.5 month trip to Thailand and Singapore. They wanted to send a poor girl back to Singapore by herself. Very stupid of her, the teacher for not checking and the airline for selling the ticket in the first place. If you make the rules it should show a flag if the ticket will be invalid.
But is it the rules and they are well known.
I was about to say it should have said when you looked up the visa requirements, but it doesn’t… cambodia-travel.com/informat … a-visa.htm. (Don’t know if this is an official site)
But this site says 3 months: traveldocs.com/kh/er.htm
What’s the purpose of this regulation anyway, according to the countries that enforce it?
The official site says 4 months.
I guess to ensure that it doesn’t expire while in that country, including possible overstaying.
well i feel i’m called upon to justify my ignorance.
“ignorance is no excuse for not knowing the law.”
but then “ignornace is bliss”.
i accept that i’m not one of the “pretty… experienced travelers”,
but before 2003 this and my previous two passports were used
in Central America. (ah, but by bus transport, not airline)
For a few years i lived in Costa Rica and every 90 days i had to
make a visa run (chose Nicaragua over Panama).
at one point with a month left on my passport i renewed it in
San Jose.
if you do the math, at least once i crossed into Nicaragua
and then crossed into Costa Rica with a passport that had
less than six months on it.
on a final note, not sure i follow the logic in this:
" guess to ensure that it doesn’t expire while in that country,
including possible overstaying."
it’s an arbitrary time frame.
like someone pointed out -
6+1 = good
6-1 = bad
if you come to Taiwan with a two week return ticket
and are given a 30 day visitors visa and decide to stay
ad nauseum beyond 6 months plus one day, what,
you turn into a bin lang tree?
anyway next month i’ll see Angkor Wat!
thanks for the notes of commiseration.
[quote=“old canuck”]anyway next month i’ll see Angkor Wat!
thanks for the notes of commiseration.[/quote]
Have fun!
You’ll notice the happy coincidence of this rule and the fact that most countries will grant up to 6 months in visitor stay visas. Some countires give you 180 days right off the bat like the US. Most regulate it in increments of 30 or 60 days where you need to establish your reason for staying.
It’s a case of having one rule for passport validity that makes things easier.
Duplicate post. I’m petarted today.
[quote=“old canuck”]
anyway next month i’ll see Angkor Wat!
thanks for the notes of commiseration.[/quote]
Just got back. You’re in for a treat. Bring a mask if you’re planning on traveling to the temples by bicycle or tuk-tuk. It’s the dry season and it’s extremely dusty.
Similarly, I was under the impression that a passport only needed to be valid for 3 months before entering another country. Luckily, I found out in time and did a fast scramble and got a new one two days before I left.
Have fun dealing with the new Cdn. passport regs.