If you have any international travel planned, you’re going to want to check the expiration date on your passport right away. Of course, you know better than to try and cross borders with an expired passport, but many countries require a six month buffer on your passport’s expiration date.
We’ve told you about this rule before. Because of visa time limits, many countries require your passport to be valid for three to six months beyond your departure date. In a nutshell, this means if you travel to those countries and your passport expires in a month, it might not be valid and you may not be able to board a flight.
Some countries take it even further and require six months of buffer time. Your best bet is to renew your passport at least nine months before it expires, however, it’s useful to know which countries enforce the rule. U.S. Today explains that the six month rule is pretty common in Asia, for example. U.S. Passport Help Guide lists 50+ countries that require six-month validity when traveling from the U.S. Here are a few of the most popular for tourists:
Austria
Belgium
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Burma (Myanmar)
China
Costa Rica
Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Czech Republic
Ecuador (including Galápagos Islands)
Ethiopia
France
French Polynesia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Iceland
India
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Kenya
Madagascar
Mexico
Malaysia
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Russia
Singapore
Spain
St. Lucia
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Trinidad & Tobago
United Arab Emirates
Venezuela
Vietnam
For more countries, head over to U.S. Passport Help Guide, which has the full list.
This story was originally published in2016 and was updated on 6/5/19.