Hi all - One of our buddies on our June charter has a passport expiring 12/1/18. I told her since there’s plenty of time to do so between now and June 9 to go ahead and renew....if she does not, will it be an issue since it is within 6 months of expiring when she travels to the BVI?

That is not a rule that pertains to the BVI, but most people here will say why risk getting a pissed off customs agent that can jack up your vacation.

I traveled to the BVI this past November on a passport that was expiring 4 months later. No problem.
But if you have the time to renew it before your trip that would be better.

I remember reading through one or two of these threads in the past. The general advice at the end of the day was basically what the two previous responses said. If there is time, why not just go ahead and do it now?

Thanks for the reminder, I just put an appointment in my calendar to remind me a year ahead of my next expiration. Boy does the time fly...

https://www.usa.gov/passport recommends renewing 9 months before you expire. With a June 9 trip and a passport expiring this year, if it was my passport, I would just go ahead and pay for the regular expediting and get it done now.

There's certainly no need to pay for expedited service now, for a passport expiring in June. People have been reporting a turnaround of about two weeks in many cases, even without expediting.

All of us have had experiences with people who think that they are much more important than they really are, making mountains out of molehills to make themselves seem more important. Have your buddy go ahead and get the passport renewed, now..

Wife just renewed hers and received it in 17 days!

I think I got mine back in less than 2 weeks recently. i was surprised.

If it were me, I'd go ahead and renew just in case. But as I mentioned last year (link here), we traveled to the BVI with only a couple of weeks left on my wife's passport, and had no problem.

Dan

We were down last month with passports that expired in September. We had no issues. We are heading back May 9th but have renewed our passports just to play it safe it needs renewed so why wait and be at the mercy of customs?

I agree with all above. Do it. I received mine in about 2 weeks.

Thanks Carol, good to know. I had no idea they were turning them around that quick these days.

In 2008, when they changed requirements and warned that the backup could take months, it took me one week to get mine back. I was truly impressed!

Yes, since that big push, passports have been very quick on renewals..

Last year I flew to SXM through MIA, the AA ticket agent was not going to let me fly bc she thought my PP would expire in 5 months. Of course she didnt figure out that she read the date wrong and it didnt expire for a year and 5 months. I dont know if that was a SXM rule or just something being enforced by AA. Me, I wouldn't take a chance some over zealous ticket or gate agent decides you shouldnt fly that day.

Actually, no the rule in SXM is specifically that the passport just has to be valid through your dates of travel, so the agent was wrong on ALL counts.. That's pretty bizarre, that she couldn't even read a date correctly!