Travel Tips

1. Check the expiry date of your passport.

• In the past two weeks I have seen a number of people who were not able to travel because they arrived at the airport with an expired passport.
• Check now to make sure your passport is valid for the dates you plan to travel.
• Some countries require that your passport be valid for a certain time period after entry into the country (it may be six months or more) so be sure to take that into consideration. Here is an interesting story.
• US citizens can find out more about entry requirements from the State Department.

2. Make sure you have enough blank visa pages in your passport.

• This morning I talked to a woman who was planning to fly to South Africa with her husband and small child. She was not allowed to fly, however, because South Africa requires a completely blank (unused) visa page in a passport. She still had space, but not one full blank page. Instead of flying out to South Africa last night, they were at the US Embassy this morning.
• JUST ADDED: I forgot to mention that the State Department will add 24 extra visa pages to your passport at no charge. In the States, you need to mail it off, but overseas, your local US Embassy may do it while you wait (about 30 minutes or so).