TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Passport Renewal Advice Please!

Age old question .. hopefully not a repeat. We are a family of 5 traveling to SXM March/April 2016 (Spring Break for the kids and we are frequent SXM visitors). 4 of us have passport expiration dates of September 2016. Some websites say we will not be allowed to enter SXM if our passports expire within 6 months of our departure from SXM date (and some websites do not!). State Department website is confusing! We will make the investment of getting all our passports renewed but I don't know that we want to do it before this trip if we don't have to. Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks in advance! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

You have to renew then sometime and technically they can block your entrance if you do not have 6 months on your passport. Whether they do or no is questionable but why take the chance. The airline will be the ones who make the decision. Why not do it now and be done with it.

It's up to the country you're visiting, not the US. Unless something has changed recently, SXM only requires that your passport be valid for the length of your stay.

I asked the TSA guy checking Id's and Passports about that very same thing he said Passports expire on the date shown you may travel as long as you are back home before it expires.
But he did say that there may be countries that want a Passport that is valid for at least 6mo.
I used my passport last April and it expired in June without any trouble

Agreed, for SXM, a passport that is valid through the date of travel is good enough. HOWEVER, if you plan on visiting Anguilla or St. Barts or some other island, you need to double-check THEIR laws.

Good point! I had not even thought of that and we always go to one or both of those islands and sometimes throw in Saba! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cool.gif" alt="" />

OK, then you need to get those passports renewed before you go, to make sure there are no issues.

The rules on St. Bart's should be the same as Saint Martin. That said, why procrastinate? My two cents ... You're going to do it sooner or later, so just get it behind you and be done with it. We had the same issue with Mrs. Alaskan's passport expiration date last year, so we just went ahead and renewed it. Without using any of the expedited services, we had her new passport in 3 weeks. Plus, she got a new, "custom" photo for the little blue book. Problem, what problem?

When one is flying into Sint Maarten, the rules will be totally different than flying into St. Martin and St. Barts. One needs to understand that most people fly into Sint Maarten, which has different rules than St. Martin and St. Barts.

Actually entrance to St. Martin (french side) and St. Barts are quite different. No visa is needed to go to St. Martin but if you do not have a passport from North American countries or the EU or a few other countries, you need a visa and a passport to enter St. Barts.

Thanks, I didn't know that ... we flew from Grand Case to Martinique in late-2013 and were required to present our passports but no visa was required. Guess your statement "if you don't have a passport from North America or the EU ... (etc.) explains the confusion.

The original question had to do with the passport having to be valid more than six months after your trip. I THINK that I read that if you arrive into St. Martin or St. Barts, that the passport has to be valid 6 months past your trip. My point was that it's been established that if you fly into the Dutch side, and you never leave the island, you don't have to worry about the six month issue. However, if you leave the island, then there could be an issue, either on the island you go to, or if you come back into the French side.

Just to let everyone know, that our passport renewal took 2 weeks from the time they did the electronic check withdrawal to today when we received our passports. Now on to global entry....

What Carol sais is correct. passport must be valid for the duration of your trip if you arrive in the Dutch side and 6 months past your trip if you arrive in the French side. We arrived in the Dutch side. a few days later we went to Marigot and took the ferry to Anguilla. After returning from Anguila at the Marigot customs the officer was checking my passport. I curiously asked what is he looking for? He said he was making sure my passport is valid at lest for another 6 months. So this was upon returning to St. Martin from Anguilla.

We were told January 2017 passports will be re vamped, chipped etc and renewal wait time will increase so plan ahead.

I recently read this article...
http://lifehacker.com/these-countries-follow-the-six-month-rule-for-passpor-1782577451