renth

I've just found out you need at least 6 months on your passport to enter Singapore. I blame the travel agent for not telling me.

Our kids have those 5 year kids passports and they expire in March so I've had to do some last minute changes, cancelling our stopover on the way out, (costing 200 dolars in lost hotel rooms.) Booking an appointment to get the passports renewed in Livrpool (over £200 for the over the counter service).

I'm dreading the passports not geting renewed because of some technicality, for a start they wouldn't book me in because I don't live in the UK, they told me I had to have a UK address, so I gave them my parent's address. Next they want 2 forms of ID with that address on it! Eventually they said my Aussie drivers license and a utility bill would do, but I don't believe them.

The problem is, if they don't renew the passports apparently they won't even let you transit in Singapore to Australia with less than 6 months to expiry. The difference this time being that we are going to Australia on British passports whereas the UK leg we are going "home".

And to top it off I've got the stress of expecting to not be allowed to board the final Singapore to Perth flight because the kids visas will be in expired passports. I know that the sticker can be in an old passport but all it takes is an inexperienced check in person...

I'm going to try to extend the stopover on the return by 2 days to make up for it but all in all it's going to cost me in the region of 900 dollars.

bondipom

There are a few countries that have a 6 month passport requirement. I always renew between a year an 6 months of expiry.

Go Banana's !!

Sorry to pee on your bonfire but this is quite common for many countries.

Hope you get it sorted and good luck.

Warren

mlbonner

Likewise, I do within 12 months. You get 9 months back of unused passport, so no real loss

Ceri

A lot of countries are like this
But I agree the travel agent should have told you when she looked at your passport.

But at least you have a passport
And have you seen how much they charge for an aussie passport here ???..$150 plus Priority processing fee $63 !!! thieving sods

They should be giving them away! It's not as if I want one , I'm quite happy to travel on my British one

My fault, I should have got one months ago, but I wasn't planning on going home for christmas.

Why don't you check with the British commission here and see if they can rush you a new passport in time, (that's if you are not flying out the weekend) instead of cancelling your stop over.

If it's anything like the Austalian lot, there is a priority service ( within 48 hours - working days)

http://bhc.britaus.net/Passports/passportsdefault.asp

I still haven't done mine ( the PO closed two minutes to 5! They are supposed to close at 5pm.. slacking off!) I swear I don't want to get on this plane lol. I'll be trying today, if it's too late it's too late. I'll worry about it when I'm in the UK, and get one there.

renth

Thanks for all your replies.

We are flying straight through, no stopover but I have extended our stopover on the way back to 4 nights. Hopefully there won't be any hiccups at the Liverpool passport office about renewing the kids passports otherwise we will be in the shit.

renth

Does anyone know what will happen if they don't renew our UK passports (for whatever reason) and we have to fly straight back to Australia without a stopeover in Singapore? Will Australian immigration let us in if the passports have less than 6 months on them, despite the fact we all have Permanent Residency visas?

I'm panicking a bit right now, can you tell?

mlbonner

Hi, I don't know, but don't panic!

I'm not sure, but I believe Australia also requires 6 months validity on the passport (I'll try and confirm this for you). However, everything I've heard about the L'pool office is good (you might have to queue, but you will get your passport sorted).

antonio_dpo

with a bit of luck you can stay in Oz and you wont have to go back to the ****in uk

renth

I'm more worried about the opposite.

Anyway, I've just rung DIMIA up and it doesn't matter if the passport is due to expire soon with a PR, it's visitors visas that they are concerned about.

mlbonner

Yep, just searched out the link on their website for you
http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/95documents.htm#1

JAJ

This problem is going to become more significant as more and more countries (including the UK) move to issuing passports valid for 5 years only.

It will take either an international agreement to fix, or alternatively the SE Asian countries may change their rules if they feel it's bad for the tourist industry and/or their airlines.

Jeremy

JAJ

With PR visas you definitely don't need 6 months validity.

However it's not possible to fly back to Australia from the UK without stopping *somewhere*. Sometimes passport rules are not as strict if you are just transiting and not passing through immigration, but this varies from country to country - you need to check.

The travel agent should have been on the case from the start - it's hardly rocket science to advise customers on passport and visa requirements for all countries on the itinerary and travel agents ought to be right on top of these.

Jeremy

renth

Well, it was buried in the "blurb" so I guess I don't really have much of a leg to stand on, but they should have actually mentioned it to me, not just got me to sign about 2 pages of fine print.