Passport expiring within six months - OK for cruise to Canada?

[Boytjie]

I asked a supervisor at checkin that question. He said HAL would allow you to board as long as the passport was valid until the end of the cruise for cruises to countries where passport not required or the countries had no expiration requirement. However that is not the case when a country does have a requirement for a minimum of time past entry date. Then HAL will impose the same requirement on the cruiser.

 

 

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I would not risk being denied boarding just because one supervisor somewhere once said it would be OK while official communications says differently. Too much experience with different people giving out different information/

[RamblinRisa]

Our son was in a similar situation a few months ago. He was able to schedule a same day appointment and had his brand new passport in two hours! This was in Philadelphia and if Philly can pull it off Boston, also being an expedited capable office, can pull it off. Just make sure you schedule an appt, bring your itinerary and of course your current passport. There may be another document you need but all the info is here:

https://www.uspassporthelpguide.com/boston-passport-agency/

Please don’t begin your wonderful cruise under stress. Good luck and safe travels.

[sail7seas]

I would not risk being denied boarding just because one supervisor somewhere once said it would be OK while official communications says differently. Too much experience with different people giving out different information/

 

 

 

 

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto

 

Ask four reps and (possibly) get four completely different answers.

[doone]

Don't risk it, renew the passport.............then you have no worries.............

[whogo]

So I'm going to just chance it and hope they let me on board. If they don't and this turns into my own personal "Amazing Race", I'll post again and you can all tell "told you so..." :p:p

You are doing the right thing and will have no problem boarding with five months remaining on your passport. Holland America should be taken to task for stating that six months is required.

[sail7seas]

Our son was in a similar situation a few months ago. He was able to schedule a same day appointment and had his brand new passport in two hours! This was in Philadelphia and if Philly can pull it off Boston, also being an expedited capable office, can pull it off. Just make sure you schedule an appt, bring your itinerary and of course your current passport. There may be another document you need but all the info is here:

https://www.uspassporthelpguide.com/boston-passport-agency/

Please don’t begin your wonderful cruise under stress. Good luck and safe travels.

 

Wonderful post. Helpful for all of us.

[doone]

Holland America doesn't make the rules.....................

[beaniele]

Holland America doesn't make the rules.....................

Exactly.

 

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[Fouremco]

Holland America doesn't make the rules.....................

It certainly does when it comes to boarding their ships. If they want 6 months left on your passport, even if it's not required, they may not let you board without.

 

DW and I were early NEXUS joiners and all of our Canada-US border crossings by land, sea and air have been with our NEXUS cards. Except one. For a HAL Canada/New England cruise departing Boston, we were refused boarding with our NEXUS cardss. We escalated the issue and spoke to the supervisor in charge, but were flatly refused. Fortunately, we always carry our passports, just in case, so we did eventually board. Given the attitude of the staff and their lack of awareness of Canada-US entry requirements, someone showing up with a passport with only 5 months validity remaining might well be rejected.

[kazu]

It certainly does when it comes to boarding their ships. If they want 6 months left on your passport, even if it's not required, they may not let you board without.

 

DW and I were early NEXUS joiners and all of our Canada-US border crossings by land, sea and air have been with our NEXUS cards. Except one. For a HAL Canada/New England cruise departing Boston, we were refused boarding with our NEXUS cardss. We escalated the issue and spoke to the supervisor in charge, but were flatly refused. Fortunately, we always carry our passports, just in case, so we did eventually board. Given the attitude of the staff and their lack of awareness of Canada-US entry requirements, someone showing up with a passport with only 5 months validity remaining might well be rejected.

 

I so agree with this.

 

I still remember a post from a number of years ago where a cruiser of Chinese origen was denied boarding because they didn't have a document. Even though they had been told it wasn't required by Seatttle. I believe they even had the email from HAL IIRC.

 

If HAL wants my passport good for 6 months on disembarkation day, that's what I do. It's not worth the risk or the stress and aggravation.

[sail7seas]

I am vague bout it, Kazu but your post rings a bell with me and I a lso remember a bit of that. He did not sail.

 

 

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[doone]

It certainly does when it comes to boarding their ships. If they want 6 months left on your passport, even if it's not required, they may not let you board without.

 

DW and I were early NEXUS joiners and all of our Canada-US border crossings by land, sea and air have been with our NEXUS cards. Except one. For a HAL Canada/New England cruise departing Boston, we were refused boarding with our NEXUS cardss. We escalated the issue and spoke to the supervisor in charge, but were flatly refused. Fortunately, we always carry our passports, just in case, so we did eventually board. Given the attitude of the staff and their lack of awareness of Canada-US entry requirements, someone showing up with a passport with only 5 months validity remaining might well be rejected.

 

The cruise lines do not make the rules about the 6 months left on your passport by end of cruise, the government does..................

[Sage]

It would be terrible to be turned away. I would renew the passport before your cruise. You can also do an expedited passport. I have done that before, and it has been back within 10 days. It cost a bit more, but it was worth it.

[kazu]

The cruise lines do not make the rules about the 6 months left on your passport by end of cruise, the government does..................

 

You are correct that governments of different countries make the rules BUT HAL has it's rules on what is needed to permit boarding.

 

For our trip next year, our Canadian passports only need to be good for 90 days for our European countries BUT HAL documents state 6 months. HAL has reasons for this - ie. what if you get sick and have to be hospitilazied and your return home is delayed so that now your passport doesn't have 3 months left on it (in my current example). Or, what if the countries change the rules just before or during the sailing?

 

If I had less than 6 months left on my passport, I would renew it and be assured that boarding the ship will not be an issue. But, that's just me ;)

[Fouremco]

If I had less than 6 months left on my passport, I would renew it and be assured that boarding the ship will not be an issue. But, that's just me ;)

No, not just you.:D

 

We always renew our passport before we reach 6 months left until expiry. DW and I are both retired and if a last minute travel opportunity pops up, we'd be kicking ourselves if we missed it because of insufficient time left on the passport. The current Canadian 10-year passport for adults costs $260, which works out to just over $2 a month. I just consider it a 9.5 year passport and don't worry about the $12 loss every 10 years!

[Fouremco]

The cruise lines do not make the rules about the 6 months left on your passport by end of cruise, the government does..................

Very true, but it does make the rules about who can board their ships. In this case, it appears that HAL requires the OP to have six months remaining on his passport, even though that is not a Canadian government requirement. As my earlier post pointed out, my personal experience is that HAL's policy is enforced at embarkation, even when it's clearly wrong.

[Brindlebury]

Coincidentally, I just was at the Passport Agency here New York expediting a new passport (I'd run out of pages, not time, on my current one). It cost $170 and the new one will be ready for pickup tomorrow afternoon. 24-hours and peace of mind.

[lisakoivu]

I'm Canadian and I have never had remaining time from current passport added to the new one. I've lost a lot of time this way, renewing at times convenient for my kids (DS is turning 16 and needs to renew his passport, I still have a year left, let's all get new passports, DD, same thing, repeat, etc.). I should note that we live quite rural, and a trip to the passport office is a bit of a journey, so when one renewed, we all renewed.

 

But...

 

Finally they're grown and I will be able to run my current 10 year passport out!

[newbie53]

Coincidentally, I just was at the Passport Agency here New York expediting a new passport (I'd run out of pages, not time, on my current one). It cost $170 and the new one will be ready for pickup tomorrow afternoon. 24-hours and peace of mind.

Some pages are labeled 'visa'. Do I need a new passport if one type of pages is full, but not the other?

[Brindlebury]

No, I don't think so. Though if that's not the case, wiser minds will chime in here.

In my case every page was full.

My new passport has twice the number of pages. And it's good for 10 years from the date of renewal (not the date when the old one would have expired).

[catl331]

Some pages are labeled 'visa'. Do I need a new passport if one type of pages is full, but not the other?

I don't think so. I once asked an immigration agent how he chose which page to stamp and he said he simply flipped, and used the first one he spotted open, so I presume that all pages are the same.

 

edit: I just went looked at our passports. In our current ones there are only three pages at the back that are not labelled Visa and they have no stamps, but on old expired passports we have stamps on pages not marked Visa.

Edited August 31, 2018 by catl331

[newbie53]

Brindlebury & Catl331

Thank you for the responses. I haven't had much chance to fill my pages, but should start working on that soon. :)

 

 

Sue

[bryanilee]

If anyone is curious, I was allowed to board the cruise, no problem. They actually took more time with my wife's passport (with two years left) for some reason, but overall it was pretty smooth getting on board.

 

HOWEVER, I would not recommend anyone else doing that - as I mentioned earlier, if I had read that somewhat obscure line about requiring 6 months earlier, I would have done the expedited renewal. And now that I'm back I guess I'll start working on finally renewing the passport.

 

The cruise was pretty good. Random advice for no one in particular - if there's a huge puzzle in the "Explorations Cafe" and you're playing with it, be sure to wash your hands after. I got some sort of cold at the end of the cruise - don't know if it's related to the puzzle, but who knows how many hands were touching those pieces! :p

[kazu]

If anyone is curious, I was allowed to board the cruise, no problem. They actually took more time with my wife's passport (with two years left) for some reason, but overall it was pretty smooth getting on board.

 

HOWEVER, I would not recommend anyone else doing that - as I mentioned earlier, if I had read that somewhat obscure line about requiring 6 months earlier, I would have done the expedited renewal. And now that I'm back I guess I'll start working on finally renewing the passport.

 

The cruise was pretty good. Random advice for no one in particular - if there's a huge puzzle in the "Explorations Cafe" and you're playing with it, be sure to wash your hands after. I got some sort of cold at the end of the cruise - don't know if it's related to the puzzle, but who knows how many hands were touching those pieces! :p

 

thanks for coming back and so glad to hear it went well for you. :D