traveling to paris passport advice

[daved1]

i am traveling to paris for 4 days on the 16th of march, my passport expires on the 15th of april, will i need to renew my passport before i go or will i be allowed to travel? i rung the foreign and commonwealth office and they said i should be ok as the passport will be valid for the time i am in paris, but some websites i have seen say i need a passport valid for at least 3 months. does anyone know whether i will be alright to travel as i cant really afford to get a new passport before i go.

thanks, dave

[Buenchico]

EU law obliges all member countries to admit anyone who can prove that they're a citizen of an EU country (either by producing a passport or a valid ID card). The French officials would be obliged to let you in even if you only had 1 minute left on your passport.

The UK and Ireland are the only EU countries which aren't already full signatories to the Schengen Agreement (or about to become so), which means that passport controls have been effectively abolished throughout Europe. Ireland would like to sign the agreement but can't because the UK won't. (That's because of the existing 'open border' agreement in Ireland). If our government ever get their act together and sign up to what all other EU countries (and some non-EU countries as well) deem to be a sensible arrangement, you won't need a passport to travel anywhere in Europe.

Chris

[dzug]

The F&CO are not the people to ask about French passport requirements - it's the French Embassy who are the experts.

And Chris is correct - it just needs to be valid. That's because it's acting as a valid national ID card rather than a passport.