portugal passport too late????

[stevie-p]

Hi abers.....
my friend wants to travel to potugal ,for 1 week
But his passport expires 2 months AFTER the date he arrives there ,and i wondered if this would be ok..Thanks all.

[dzug]

Depends on his nationality. Any EU passport would be OK, including a British one. The EU does not allow member states to make conditions about passport validity, return tickets, etc, for its citizens.

Others could be a problem

[VillageVicar]

Well said dzug. There's one other factor that might be considered. It can highly depend on the airline carrying you.

Some of them are not service focused enough to permit you to travel with an out of date passport. The reason is quite simple: Airlines face incredible fines from destination countries for failing to vet passports and visas properly.

Typically the carrier would need to phone ahead to the destination to obtain a note of passage grant from the arrival immigration officer on duty..and strangely, that's even if the arrival destination can't be bothered to look at your passport...just think of arriving in the Balearic Islands in the wee hours of the morning...it's almost a shame to wake the passport officer from his beauty nap..

I wish you every success...

Remember: It is much easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission!

Fr Bill

[Buenchico]

As Dzug states, EU countries are obliged to give free passage to any EU citizen who can provide valid proof of thei citizenship. (Since the UK doesn't have ID cards yet, that means a current passport).

There are only a few countries where you have to have a certain length of time left on your passport when you enter. In every case this is to ensure that your passport will still be valid when you leave, even if your departure has been delayed by unforeseen circumstances (such as hospitalization). EU countries can't impose such conditions upon any EU citizen because you don't ever have to leave their country. (EU citizens have the automatic right to enter any other EU country, to live there and to work there. So immigration authorities can't impose rules related to your leaving date because you're not obliged to leave).

Your friend can arrive in Portugal one minute before midnight on the very last day of his passport's validity. The Portugese authorities would still have to admit him. They have no choice under EU law.

Chris

[dzug]

Which are these airlines that make up their own rules?

I've seen third hand reports of their alleged existence but never one actually named and shamed.

[stevie-p]

many thanks everyone.