My wife, daughter, and I are coming to AC on 5/22 for a long weekend. Last night I thought to check the expiration dates on our passports and realized that my wifes will be expiring in August of this year (approx. 3 months after we have returned home from the trip). It is my understanding that the lead time to get a US passport renewal is still being delayed for extended periods of time right now. I would prefer to renew it after we had returned home when time would not be an issue. Does anyone know if Belize has any type of entry restriction like they do in some other countries where if your passport is within 6 months of expiration that you can not enter?

Thanks....

you have plenty of time. Renew when you get home. The backup seems to be taken care of and most get done in 6 to 8 weeks.
Because you are leaving with in 30 days don't think anyone will say anything about her passport. Here is the info page.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738_2.html
Mary

DOA, you can also expedite the passport. Or if your really in a hurry you can go to your nearest passport office and walk it from building to building. Here in Texas I think it's in Houston but not sure.

I don't think the wait is like it was last year.

WOAH!! i have always heard the above quote is true in belize - that you are not supposed to enter the country if your passport is within 6 months of expiration. CAN ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS STUFF VERIFY THIS???

I'm told that your passport needs to have six months remaining validity on it if you are going to get on a plane to Belize, but that might have changed. Check with the airline immediately as this could be a real issue.
If you have a plane ticket already I think you can use that for expediting a renewal of your passport.

my daughter came back in Nov. 08 her passport expired the day before she left. She was only here a week. Nobody said anything. They probably did not look at the dates.
Mary

It is not that we are in a rush to renew or do not want to renew her passport. It would not be a big deal, except that you have to surrender the old passport with the application for the new one. I just hate the thought of sending in the current one and then have something happen where we are left hanging when it is time to leave on the trip. I guess I will send it in and just pay for the expidited service, beats taking a day off to go down and walk it through the passport office.

D.O.A.

From the BTB web site www.travelbelieze.org :

"With the exception of cruise ship passengers, all visitors to Belize must present a valid passport before entering the country. Please note that driver's licenses and birth certificates are not approved travel documents and cannot be used to enter the country. Passports must be valid up until time of departure.

In cases where a visitor remains in the country for over 30 days, an extension of entry must be requested. Extensions are available for the cost of:

Up to 6 months for US $25
After 6 months US $50 per month"

You should be all set. Hope this helps.
Byron

The government website is far more reliable than the personal experiences of others. You will get your answer at:

http://www.governmentofbelize.gov.bz/weather_travel.html

"All travelers entering the country must have a valid passport (valid for up to six months after visit) and a proof of return to their country. No visas are required for citizens of the United States, United Kingdom and the majority of Caribbean Islands. Visitors from other countries must check for information about obtaining a visa. Belize allows visitors a maximum of one-month stay in the country before they require an extension."

If you want to take the chance that nobody will notice the expiry date on your wife's passport, go for it. I wouldn't risk it. It would sure spoil your holiday if she had to stay home.

To kind of ease your fears on passports; we did ours about a month ago. It was just about two weeks before we got our passport and travel cards with all of our submitted paperwork. I think you'll be fine.

They also have overnight services. If you call your passport office and tell them your situation they will give you the name of an company that will walk your paperwork through the system. It does cost. We did this a few weeks ago for a friend that was going with us to Belize in just 10 days time. We did the 4 day turn around and the total for the passport fees and service was about $300. I know that is a lot but if you are worried it might be worth the money to put your mind at ease.

On this same subject, do you have to surrender your old passport to get a new one? I love my old passport with all of the stamps and visas. I would like to keep it. Luckily mine isn't due to expire for 4 more years.

Uh you don't have to surrender if you lost it. If it is one of the new ones that has the chips in it they just deactivate it. We have some passports that belonged to family members that have passed on. They are treasures that my children love to look through and see all the places their family members went to, when they were there and so on.

Usually if there is an issue with the six-month expiration it is not with immigration in the destination country but with the airline you are flying in on. A gate agent with a stickler for detail can deny you boarding.

Does this happen often? No. Does it ever happen? Yes. There was a posting about this a few weeks ago on the Lonely Planet Thorntree board from a person who had been denied boarding on a flight to Panama by the airline, due to the fact the passport expired in less than six months. A friend flying from Florida to Belize on American a few years ago was almost denied boarding but was able to talk the agent out of it, arguing that it didn't apply since he was a Canadian. The agent bought it.

...

On expedited processing, many U.S. Congresspersons provide expedited passport processing as a constituent service -- this may not be quite as fast as the expedited service you pay for, but it's free (except perhaps for the cost of Fedexing.) You can call your Congressional Representative's field office and see if that's a service offered to voters. (If not, maybe it's time for a new Congressperson.) And ~$15 bucks is a heck of a lot better than $300.

...

You do send in your old passport when reapplying, but you get the passport back, either deactivated electronically or with a few holes punched in it.

--Lan Sluder

ExOkie,

When you apply for the new one you have to send your old one back. They will return it with holes punched in it like Lan says. Don't worry they are small holes and the various exit and entry stamps are still readable and able to bring back many fond memories.

About the length of time they have to be good for. It's just like a lot of things having to do with Belize one site gives information (like I posted) another gives info like Moose posted!
He is probably right - after all you learn (when living up in the cold north) that you NEVER argue with a Moose!

But after all that is one of the things that makes Belize, Belize and I love it all the more for just this type of thing!

Byron

AlaskaMan, I'll back that up. I just renewed our passports and it took about 18 days. I did not use the expedited service. I used ordinary mail, certified with a return receipt. Not sure if that was necessary. It was easy although I did have reservations about the process. There website makes it easy. http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/forms_847.html Good Luck, D. O. A.

Thanks WTIB - Not looking forward to the RFID passport either. Hopefully in 4 yrs I'll be living in Belize and won't need it.

All that is needed is a valid passport for dates in Belize.
I had absolutely no problem last year with a passport that expired 2 wks. after I got home.

Just as an update to the original post, I sent the passport documents in on the 4th or 5th of last month, and we received the passports back in the mail yesterday, so just a little over a month and we had them back without paying for expedited service etc. They appear to have updated the security features as well in the newer version as opposed to mine which is around 3 years old now....