Sunday, July 13, 2025

Children’ Passports Expire A lot Sooner Than Adults—What Vacationers Have to Know

  • Some dad and mom get an undesirable shock earlier than a household journey after they be taught that little one passports have a brief validity window.
  • Baby passports are solely legitimate for 5 years, in comparison with a 10-year validity span for grownup passports.
  • Consultants advocate that folks or guardians renew their kid’s passport each three and a half years.

Households planning a global journey could wish to fastidiously examine their little one’s passport expiration date.

Whereas many vacationers perceive {that a} common United States passport is legitimate for 10 years, the coverage isn’t the identical for a kid’s passport. Actually, the U.S. Division of State, which manages the passport course of, states that passports for youngsters underneath the age of 16 are legitimate for half of the conventional time period: simply 5 years. 

To be on the secure facet, dad and mom ought to plan on changing a baby’s passport no less than each three and a half years, as many nations require greater than six months of passport validity to have the ability to use the doc for entry to their nation. 

The State Division has a useful guidelines for folks who’re within the technique of changing or acquiring a first-time passport for a kid underneath the age of 16. A number of the particular directions embody offering proof of U.S. citizenship and each dad and mom submitting data and consent for the passport. 

“Each dad and mom or guardians should approve that we will situation a passport to a baby, and go together with the kid to use in individual,” the State Division’s web site explains. 

The coverage additional explains that renewals can’t be accomplished by the DS-82 type, and as a substitute need to be processed as new passports. ​​The present processing time for a routine passport software is 4 to 6 weeks, and expedited service takes two to 3 weeks. 

For a lot of households, the five-year expiration may cause panic and disruption earlier than flights. 

“The plans have been booked final minute and I seen as we speak his passport is expired!” one dad or mum shared in a Reddit put up

One other household described the “pressing state of affairs” during which their trip to Punta Cana was fully ruined after they realized their kid’s passport was two months expired, sharing in one other Reddit put up, “we needed to rebook and make an appointment for expedited passport renewal at a passport company, this sucks!” 

Frequent vacationers may additionally contemplate making use of for a World Entry membership for his or her little one, which might present expedited airport safety screening. The method much like what an grownup would do to get World Entry membership, together with the in-person interview. Nonetheless, kids underneath the age of 14 don’t must submit fingerprints. 

The State Division frequently gives “Particular Passport Acceptance Gala’s” as methods for first-time passport candidates to obtain particular assist and insights on the appliance course of. A full itemizing of the occasions is on the State Division’s web site at journey.state.gov.

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