About Passport:
It is a travel document, usually issued by a country’s government to its citizens, that certifies the identity and nationality of its holder primarily for the purpose of international travel. In India passport is usually issued for 10 years for Adults and 5 years for minors.
Validity Requirement:
When you apply for the short visit visas to the consulate, ideally it has to be valid for at least 6 months from the return travel date to ensure you have a smooth travel to the destination country. Some countries might ask for 6 months validity from the travel start date or even for a year. Do check the passport validity requirements before you apply for visas and then before you travel.
It’s not just the validity period, it also has to be the number of empty pages available in the passport. Ideally for short visit visas, it has to have at least 2-4 pages being completely empty sans even the immigration stamps. For work permits, some countries require 4-8 pages being empty. Some of the countries like UK, might require having minimum of 2 pages (front and back of the single paper to be empty) due to the security codes present on the visa vignette, otherwise they cannot stamp the visas). Ideally ensure at least 2-3 papers of the passport to be empty on both sides of the respective papers.
In terms of work permit applications, countries like US/Europe, it can be valid from few months to 1 year. For these countries, visa is not issued as per passport validity and they go ahead and issue the maximum period of the work permit from 1 year/4 years/10 years. Only requirement for them is passport has to be valid until the complete process is done. When the passport expires before the visa validity, you can apply for a new passport. When you travel all that you need is to ensure, you carry both old and new passports since the work permit/visas are in the old passport.
For countries like Europe/few Asian countries, there is post landing formalities for work permit as the residence/work permit gets stamped only after landing in the destination country. In this case passport cannot expire until the post landing formalities are done. If it expires before landing, then you might have to reapply for the passport and have to reapply for the work permit with the new passport, which again adds unnecessary cost to the corporate/individual.
For countries like Malaysia, the passport has to be valid for full 2 years in order to get the maximum period to be issued, as the work permits (EP) are issued for a maximum of for 2 years. If you don’t have the 2 years validity, then your work permit gets issued only until the passport validity date, which means, you have to reapply for the work permit, once your new passport comes through which would add additional cost for you.
For countries like Singapore, the visa has to be transferred to the new passport, if the old passport expires and your visa is still valid. This also adds additional cost to you, as Singapore doesn’t accept travelling with the visa in the expired passport, even if you carry the new passport along with it.
Physical Condition:
Passport cannot be physically damaged while applying for visa application specially while travelling.
Ensure the passport is kept safe, so that physically it’s not damaged.
The paper from the passport cannot be torn no matter what.
You/your kids cannot scribble on the passports.
Ensure, if the lamination from bio or address page is coming off, ensure to get a new passport.
If there is any accidental physical damage to the passport, better get a new passport and travel or else you might get into problems at the destination country
It’ s also important that you ensure, the passport is not damaged while travelling, then there is a possibility of you getting stuck at the destination, until your new passport comes through.
It’s better to apply passport in your home country which might be easier than applying at the destination.
Happy Travelling…and Stay Safe…..