Last-minute passport renewal

With Sept. 9, 2014, as the departure date for a trip my husband and I were taking to France, it was on Sept. 1 (Labor Day) that I discovered that France requires a traveler’s passport to be valid for six months beyond the planned period of stay. This caused us considerable anxiety.

When we called the 24-hour contact number for passports (877/487-2778), we were assigned an appointment for Monday, Sept. 8. That struck me as too late to have our passports renewed, so on Tuesday, Sept. 2, we printed out the various application forms, prepared passport photographs and drove to the Washington Passport Agency (600 19th St. NW, Washington, DC 20006).

We were treated courteously and with understanding from the moment we entered the lobby. The screening officers explained that it was a frequent occurrence for travelers to discover changed passport requirements just a few days before travel.

Since we were there simply for the expedited renewal of valid passports, we didn’t need an appointment and, after passing through security, we could proceed directly to one of the windows for the processing.

The passport review clerk gave us the correct forms for the renewals and transferred our photos to those forms. We proceeded to the processing clerk, who said everything was fine and that we had allowed plenty of time for processing. (The office frequently has to help people traveling that same day.)

With an added “expedite fee” of $60 per person, we were able to have our passports renewed and could pick them up on Sept. 4.

  We found the information at the Travel.state.gov site to be confusing and contradictory, but the people at the office were pleasant and helpful. There were no lines, and our visit went smoothly.

I only wish I’d been able to get a clear answer on the passport requirements sooner and that there’d been some way of knowing when these requirements were going to change.*

ANN ABELES

Frederick, MD

*On the website Travel.state.gov, in the box “Learn about your destination,” type “France” to get the “Quick Facts” page. Under the heading “Passport Validity,” it states that in order to enter a country in the Schengen area, your passport must be valid for three months beyond your planned departure from that country. And under the heading “Entry, Exit & Visa Requirements,” it states that to enter most European Union countries (including France), your passport must be valid for six months following your planned stay.

The 26 European countries under the Schengen agreement allow transit from one to another without border controls. (Of the 28 European Union member states, 22 are in the Schengen Zone.)