Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

The passport you received is good for ten years, unless you are leaving the country within six months prior to its expiration. In that case, you need to renew it before you depart.

You won’t find this notice from the U.S. Department of State posted anywhere, but it seems to be the operating system in the wacky world of the government. I only came across it because I happen to fall into the above category.

I’m going to Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Belize the end of January 2005; and my passport expires the end of May, same year. You can do the math.

Somewhere I read the above disclaimer, which was offered in a font some size between a sesame seed and a peppercorn. Although I cannot find it now, it haunted me. So I called our travel agent, the one who is setting up this trip and asked if he had heard of it too. He wasn’t sure he had. But he wasn’t sure he hadn’t. He suggested I go for the new passport, just in case.

For the sake of discussion (If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m always up for discussion), let’s assume this rule IS written somewhere in obscure black and white. If you are not traveling in the last six months of your current passport, it doesn’t matter at all. But what if you are, and you don’t come across this dictum? What if a trip comes up unexpectedly three months prior to the expiration date? You could get stranded in Tibet.

Today I downloaded the forms from the U.S. Department of State regarding passport renewal applications. I studied the peppercorn-sized print, and still didn’t find anything about the six-month window.

Maybe it was a requirement of the tour company we selected, but my travel agent should have known this since he IS the tour company. In either case, would you take a chance and assume that your expiration date on your passport was adequate protection in a foreign country? Especially in today’s world.

Me neither.