I had a wonderful bridal shower this weekend with family and friends in attendance--the weather was perfect and the location divine--but then panic (unrelated to the shower) set in this morning, and I feel the need to share/unload it.
I try to keep up to date with travel news because I find the whole industry to be fascinating. Today I was reading an article about passport regulations, and the article mentioned that some countries require your passport to be valid for a certain amount of time after your arrival, or they won't let you enter the country.
My initial thought was, what is the point of having an expiration date if it isn't the real expiration date? But apparently most countries don't agree with me.
The reason that this news was potentially a critical problem is that my passport is due to expire somewhat soon. I applied for it towards the end of 1997 (in preparation for a trip to Europe in 1998). I couldn't remember when I received the passport, but I thought that the expiration date was in December of this year or January or February of next year.
I did a quick internet search but couldn't find anything online about the requirements, so I called the French consulate in Washington, D.C., and they referred me to the French consulate in Boston. A surly sounding woman answered the phone in French but (grudgingly? perhaps a bit) agreed to speak English. I asked how long a U.S. passport had to be valid for me to enter France, and she said it had to be valid for 3 months after the date of entry.
And then I started to panic.
If my passport had a December expiration, I might not be allowed into France. I might not even be allowed on the airplane to leave the country. I had to find out the expiration date pronto.
I left work and rushed home, worried--were my best-laid plans destined to leave me stranded at the airport? I am the type of person who plans for *everything*--how could I have overlooked such a critical part of the trip?
Luckily, my panic was unnecessary. Upon arriving home, I discovered that my passport is in fact good until February of next year--just in time to renew it with my new name.
Huge sighs of relief.
