Can I travel and come back with less than 6 months passport validity?
By northandsouth •
I am confused regarding the rules about passport validity versus residency validity when it comes to travel, as I have heard different opinions on this.
My question:
My residency expires in January 2013, and my passport in March 2014.
Does this mean I can travel and come back to Qatar for example in December 2012, and then have my passport renewed before the residency expires?..
– OR –
Does the 6-month rule still apply, i.e. my passport should have at least 6 months validity left on the day I return to Qatar (which means I have to renew my passport already in October, before travelling)?
Would appreciate to know the rule on this. Thanks.
RP validity depends on where you are travelling. If you travel back home, no problem with your RP, you can leave Qatar even with 2 days of RP validity, as long as you come back before it's expired. If you travel to GCC countries, you won't be allowed to board with less than 6 months (some countries require 3 months) Qatari RP validity.
The rest of my answer got cut off (above)- long story short: To fly to Qatar from the US you MUST have 6 months of validity on your passport. I was now allowed to fly and had to get a new passport. This happened last month to me.
I can answer about the passport question. I have an American passport and planned to fly back to Qatar about 4 weeks ago from Dallas. I went to the airport on the scheduled day and they would not let me fly. I was shocked!
THey said that since I only had 4 months of validity left on my passport that I could not fly to Qatar. If they (BritishAirways) let me fly they could be fined if they did not follow Qatar's rules for entry. They said I had to have at least 6 months of validity left to fly to Qatar even though I had a valid residency visa. They said it didn't matter that my residency visa was valid. What mattered was that my passport didn't have the required 6 months of validity left on it. Needless to say, I had to cancel that flight and book another flight to Qatar, 2 days later, which meant that I was frantically learning how to get an expedited passport. I was only allowed to qualify for the expedited passport if I had proof of needing it fast, which meant I had to book another flight and use that paperwork as the proof I needed it expedited. IF you have a flight scheduled within 14 days you quality for the expedited passport. It was frantic but I did get a brand new passport, and got to fly to Qatar two days later!
you should enter qatar before Qatar ID expiry,
As per your Dates you can travel in Dec and need to come back before your RP Expires, then you have one year to renew your passport even you can renew once again as you said your passport will Expire in March 2014.