Quick! Can You Answer These Three Questions About Your Passport?

Knowing when to renew your U.S. passport is as important as owning one. Also learn how about why you need blank pages in your passport.  This ensures your travel plans happen like you wanted, and not stopped at the entry point of your destination country.

#1 Where is your passport?
It happens. You put up your passport after your last adventure and now that you’re planning another trip, you can’t find it. A good idea is to get a small lockbox or designated place for personal travel papers, then you’ll never do that last minute scramble to find your passport again.

#2 When do you need to renew your passport?
Many countries have requirements that a U.S. passport has six months validity remaining in order to enter.

This means even if your passport is currently valid and not expired, you may get detained or denied entry at certain borders. A good plan is to begin the renewal process six months before your passport expires and then you’ll travel without any issues.

#3 How many blank pages does your passport have?
Another issue for frequent travelers is running out of pages in their passports. Not having enough blank pages in your passport can stop your entry to some countries. It’s a good rule of thumb to always have two to four blank pages in your passport. You can no longer add pages, you will now need to renew if your passport is lacking blank pages.

Need help? First, talk to us about renewing your passport.
Additionally, if your travels are frequent and require a passport, you can ask for a larger passport. Larger passports have 43 pages instead of the standard 17.

Answering these three questions can avoid some of the biggest causes of travel delays.