Hi everyone,
I am traveling to Germany and Italy from Nov 20 - Dec 5.
My US passport expires on Jan 27 2010 so it expires about 2 months after I leave Germany,

the requirements to enter germany say "The passport should be valid for at least three months beyond the period of stay." ... is that a hard and fast rule or do they allow you to sneak in if its close??

I really don't want to go through the new passport hassle/fees if its no big deal.

Your passport will expire 3 months from NOW???

Most countries require a passport expiration date of not less than 3 months from your entrance[i][/i] into the country. You'll be lucky if the airlines let you board the plane to overseas, they check passports and visas carefully before boarding international passengers as they are responsible for passengers who are refused entry into the destination country. With such a close passport expiration date, you'll be lucky to even board the plane to begin with.

Get_a_new_passport. Now!

If you run to your nearest Passport office, you can get a rush order done for a lot of extra money.

There's a good reason why every embassy puts on its visa forms:
Passport must have at least3- 6 months before expiration date. They mean it.

sigh, damnit.
well Delta told me they would let me on the flight, its more of a matter if German/Italian customs will let me in.

The Germans almost certainly wouldn't let you in. If entering via Italy, there's a chance, but it's still a risk. Never plan on traveling on a passport with less than 6 months left on it.

The cost of a rush passport is still lower than an entire wasted vacation. Get a new one.

well here is another thing to throw everyone off:

look at this link,which is the offical Germany visa website:

http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/ ... _Visa.html

"US citizens in possession of a valid US passport do not need a visa for airport transit, tourist or business trips (for stays up to 90 days). The passport must not expire before the end of the scheduled trip.

According to the so-called Schengen agreement, tourist and business visas issued by a mission of one of the following countries are valid for travel to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. However, you always have to apply at the consulate of the country which is your main destination."



what do i do????

the US state dept site says a different thing from the Germany consulate site?

I think you'd better find information on some websites to have information you want. Look information from this link. http://germany.visahq.com/ . I hope it can help you. Good luck.

You need to renew your passport when it's about six months from expiration. Many countries won't want to let you in unless it's got at least six months left. Sooner the better...it can take a month to get it processed.