Travelling Overseas? – check your passport has 6 months left on it

I’m off to Namiba on Sunday but I had a phone call from the Airline earlier this week to say my Passport would need to be valid for at least 6 months from the time I exited Namibia (as opposed to the date I entered the country). The law of sod being what it is my Passport would only have had 5 months & 28 days left to run hence I was warned they may not let me in.

So today I was hanging around the Passport Office in Victoria as it still takes 4 hours even if you go along in person and costs a whopping £114!

Okey dokey.. so as it happens I snuck off to Tottenham Court Road and did a spot of gadget shopping, but the moral of the story is if you are booking your Summer Hols to somewhere like Florida or a far flung place check your passport will still 6 months left to run on the date you leave that country, not the date you arrive as I’m told this is a growing practice.

(Oh, and I now have a biometric Passport with a chip in it!)