10 Year Passport ???

[sprayer]

Having paid an extortionate price for a 10 year passport I have been informed that because when I travel there will be a little less than six months left on it until it needs to be renewed so therefore i will not be able to travel, this really brasses me off having paid for a ten year one why is it only valid for NINE AND A HALF years as my travel will be over far before it finally expires,what a rip off!!!

[ACtheTROLL]

you show 'em spray ... you sit at home ... that'll teach 'em.

[musicman1956]

It's not to get 6 months of your time, it's in case you get ill or arrested when you are away and are kept in the country longer than you thought. Without a valid passport, getting back in might be tricky.

[barry1010]

If you renew a passport up to 9 months but its expiry date, that extra time is added to the new passport.

[factor-fiction]

Passports may be an extortionate price now but I don't think they were when you bought yours nine and a half years ago- it seems they were �21. That works out at �2.10 a year, so the 6 months you think you may have lost out on cost you just over a �1. But anyway, if barry is right you can carry forward the remaining months.

[VHG]

It is not our goverments or passport office fault.

It is the "rule" in the country you are visting, for the reasons already stated (illness etc).

[spudqueen]

As has been said above, it's not the UKs fault that you want to visit a country that insists on six months being left on your passport. If you were visiting an EU country for example then you wouldn't need six months on it. And as barry1010 says you can renew your passport at anytime, though if you do so with 9 months or left on your passport the remaining months are added to your new passport, so your new one could be valid for 10 years and 9 months. See here
http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/apply-renewing- when.asp

[Buenchico]

As Spudqueen's post indicates, very few countries actually have a '6 month validity rule'. You can travel to anywhere in the EU right up until the last day of your passport's nominal validity. Most other popular tourist destinations will also accept your passport throughout its full (nominal) validity. (Even the USA, which has some of the strictest entry requirements in the world, waives their '6 month rule' for British passport holders).

There are only a few countries that require your passport to have a certain period of validity on it when you enter (or plan to leave) their country. Unfortunately a few travel agents can't be bothered to train their staff properly, resulting in all of their customers being told that they must have 6 months left on their passport. This has led to a myth that you can't travel anywhere outside the UK without 6 months left on your passport.

As both Barry1010 and Spudqueen have stated, if you renew your passport prior to its expiry, any unexpired time (up to a maximum of 9 months) is automatically added to the validity of the new document.

Chris

[sprayer]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question, I did'nt know that unexpired time on your old passport could be added to your new one, The travel agent never told me that so I take back what I said about our wonderful passport office (still not happy about the price of a new one though)