Hey all, we just checked our passports and realized my wifes expires this July--late, like the 20th or so. No problem as we are returning after the 1st round, like on the 25th or so of June. No problem, right? Wrong. What she has found out is that in Germany, your passport must be valid for 3 months AFTER your planned departure date (I mean departure from Germany--heading home). She said the rules were very strange and did not make sense. My thinking is that do not want anyone sticking around too long to where their passport expires and they set it as three months. So, do check your date and if it is before, say October, you may want to do what we are doing and have it renewed now. Less than a month to go!!!
The rule makes sense because you are allowed to stay three months as a tourist. Your passport must be valid for as long as you are allowed to stay.
Fortunately US citizens don't need VISAs. Many countries require your passport to be valid for 6 months after the scheduled departure date before they'll even issue one.
Yep, that is what she found out, most countries are 6 months, but Germany is only 3 (of course no visa needed, but 3 months to be allowed entry). Make sure you have that much time on your passport.
This is a standard regulation for most countries around the world, although the exact number of months varies. My guess is that if you hadn't noticed it and traveled to Germany on it, they probably would have made an exception provided you were able to show the immigration officials a return plane ticket and they were able to verify that you were employed. But it certainly would have been a giant hassle!
That's good news. I finally dug up my passport this morning and mine expires 20 January 2007. My return trip is 28 June 2006. I was wondering if I'd get all the way to Germany and then catch flack from immigration.
I got conflicting info from the German embassy when I called them about a month ago or so. My wife's (old) passport was due to expire at the end of July this yeah. I called the German embassy and the woman I spoke with said that as long as we came back to the US before the expiration date that my wife would have been able to travel into Germany. I then called the US Department of State, and the woman I spoke with there said that my wife should renew her passport prior to departing the US since our return date was so close to the expiration date on her passport. So to be on the safe side we renewed her passport with the "expedited" option - it arrived within about a week after we sent the renewal application in.
I also suspect that you wouldn't have a problem, although if they strictly enforce the rules you might. I have entered Europe before without having my papers 100% in order and had no problem. It's one of the guilty benefits of coming from a rich country. Had I tried that with an African passport I would have been sent straight to a holding cell to await deportaion. With Germany suspending the Schengen (agrement to allow free movement of people with the EU) during the WC, though, I also wouldn't be surprised if the border control agents will have instructions to be a little tougher. I still think you'd get in, but as MikeLastort2 put it, there really is no reason just to go ahead and renew it now and not have any worries or confusion. It would really suck to arrive in Germany and be put on the next plane back home.
I had not heard about this. Can you elaborate a bit more? Is this for just the land borders, such as road and train crossings? Will they suddenly have a large new contingent of Grunzenschutzpolizei?
Exactly. Just as Portugal did two years ago, Germany is reimposing border controls from other Schengen countries. This doesn't neccessarily mean that everyone gets checked, but whereas now the only thing to tell you that you've just driven from from France into Germany is a road sign, there will probably be a few guys hanging out next to a police car looking into your car as you drive by and asking every fifth car for papers, or something like this. Not a big deal, really.
Yepp, germans ministry of interior has informed the EU, that it will suspend the Schengen Treaty during the World Cup. That means, border controlls could happen at entering Germany from another Schengen country, but don´t have to. I remember Netherlands did the same during EC 2000 on the German border the day and the day before Germany played there games. I don´t know, if they close the borders during whole of the tournament and whole of the coutntryborders, or only depending on matchdays and which european teams are playing. But you have to be prepared for border controlls.
Last time I went to Germany was spring of 2001, with my college soccer team. We had a few guys from Trinidad & Tobago on our team, and when they went through customs, they were told that they had the wrong type of visas. It ended up holding our group up about 2 hours, but in the end, the customs officials were able to see past it, once they each paid 60 marks.