A Few Essential Facts to Know About Your Passport

---

As you know, passport is one of the two most important documents while visa being the other, allowing you to travel abroad. So you must keep them handy before heading towards your next foreign destination. If you don’t have one, apply for new US passport. There are some countries that allow you entering without visa while some allow a stay up to 90 days; most countries require a traveler to have a valid visa. In all of these cases, you need to have a valid passport.

When it comes to a passport, you must know essential nitty-gritty and requirements related to it ensuring a safe and hassle-free traveling. Let’s have a quick look at them.

• Blank page – There are some countries that require the visitors to have a passport with at least one to two blank pages to be stamped. These countries may include Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Iceland and Singapore. Besides, there are some countries like South Africa that require American visitors to have two blank pages on their passport to get a visa in case they are staying more than 90 days. China issues 6-months visa to any American passport with any two blank pages. However, if you’re planning to have a 10-years visa, the blank pages must be consecutive.

• 6-month validity – Most nations including Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam want the visitors to carry a passport with 6-months remaining validity. This is, in fact, a rule of thumb. It must be ensured that your passport will be valid for 6-months even after the planned trip. Your travel plan may change. And if your passport doesn’t have needed validity, you can’t even postpone your plan and thus have to cancel it. However, don’t suppose that countries within same region will may have the same regulations. Being a part of Europe’s Schengen area, Italy needs 6 months validity on the passport to any country not belonging to Schengen. However, being the part of the same area, Switzerland needs 90 days validity while France needs 3 months. If the validity of passport is expired, apply for passport in USA.

• New passport – It is wise and safe to accept that your visa will expire with the passport though the former might be still valid. There are only a few countries that allow visitors to travel with both new and old passports with valid visa until the identifying information remains the same. And these countries are India, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. You can’t transfer your valid visa from your old passport to the new one. So if your passport expires, just get it renewed at the earliest as it takes time for passport renewal. Better you get the job of passport renewal for American nationals done early.

• Several or multiple entry – Chine is one of those few counties that offer a 10-years visa. If you’re planning to travel to and from particular countries over coming years, better you check if your preferred nation offers multiple-entry visa. Apart from China, Brazil and India also provide the same facility. The length of the visa, however, depends on the purpose of travelling. Business travelers might be issued with such a visa valid for one, five or ten years depending on the nature of purpose.

These are a few essential things that you must take care of regarding your passport to ensure a safe and stress-free foreign tour. Whether you apply for expedite service for same day passport or use the traditional way, having a valid passport is very much required, especially if you’re a regular traveler.

---