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My wife's passport expires in 3 months and she didn't know about the rule that you can't fly to Europe if it expires within 3 months. We shortened her stay by a few days to accommodate this. My question is, once we are there are we able to book a flight home later on even though the passport will expire in less than a few months? I know it's probably not technically allowed but once we're there can we get away with it?

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    What country are you flying to? What is your wife's nationality?
    – phoog
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 0:57
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    General rule is - if you are flying to your home country, you can enter upto day of expiry. True for many countries you are a resident of also.
    – Anish Sheela
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 1:20
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    Renew your passports if there is not time for this get the temporary emergency passport from your country.
    – Simson
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 8:25
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    "we know it's probably not allowed" so don't do it... Why are we bombarded with questions that boil down to "how do I get away with breaking the law"?
    – jwenting
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 9:18
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    Does this answer your question? What happens if your passport expires while you are visiting another country?
    – jwenting
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 9:19

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The passport expiring is not a problem in itself. The 3 month validity rule applies only at point of entry, so you can stay freely as long as the passport remains valid. Even if the passport expires, your wife can get a new one or possibly even fly back to your home country with an expired one (although this can be a hassle, so I don't recommend it).

What is a problem, though, is that Schengen has a 90-day rule: as a visitor you're not allowed to spend more than 90 days in any given 180-day period within Schengen. Your wife would exceed that if she stays there for longer than 3 months, and visa extensions are generally impossible without very strong reasons (eg. being hospitalized).

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  • "you can stay freely as long as the passport remains valid" yes, indeed. So NOT with an expired passport as that's a passport that's no longer valid.
    – jwenting
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 14:58
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    They won’t hunt you down if your passport expired, and they won’t stop you from going home (because they actually want to get rid of you) but they will take note and you’ll have problems the next time you want to enter the EU.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jun 8, 2023 at 17:34

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