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If I renew my passport do I get 10 years from the expiration date or 10 years from the renewal date?

My passport expires in December 2013 so if I travel now, I would still have more than 6 months before it expires, but if I travel after June 2013 I would have less than 6 months before it expires.

If I renew my passport now and my passport would expire 10 years after the renewal date it would be valid until December 2022. If I waited until April of 2013 I'd get an extra 4 months, and it would be valid until April 2023.

On the other hand, if they gave me 10 years from the expiration date of the current passport, then my renewed passport would be valid until December of 2023, almost a year longer than if they only give me 10 years from the renewal date.

Therefore please advise me if I get 10 years from the expiration date or 10 years from the renewal date.

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    What's your nationality? – Peter Hahndorf Nov 24 '12 at 20:57
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    I am not sure if there is an answer that fits all countires. My passport has a validity that lasts 5 years on the date of issue. – user141 Nov 24 '12 at 21:10
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    Same, NZ is 5 years only now :( – Mark Mayo♦ Nov 24 '12 at 23:15
  • It's true. Just spoken to passport office. The 'unused' months are lost if you apply early. I did so as to avoid the fiasco of last year. Never again. I have lost four months as mine now starts in March and has taken away months for last one which ended in June. Last passport did add months on to the end if you applied early. Just another way to s*** on the public – user27558 Mar 11 '15 at 12:59
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    Which country is this for? Also, perhaps you could rephrase so that your answer focuses on conveying useful information, as opposed to complaining. – Nate Eldredge Mar 11 '15 at 14:08
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It depends on what country issued your passport

If you have a British Passport, and renew it early, then Time left on your existing passport will be added to your new one - up to a maximum of 9 months. Thus you can have a British passport with an expiry date 10 years and 9 months into the future.

However, many countries don't extend the validity of a new passport based on time left on the old one, so you won't get any credit for renewing early. Australia is one such country, there are many more.

Generally, if you look up the rules on passport renewal and you see something about transferring time from an older passport then it'll be done. If you don't see anything about it there, then most likely your country doesn't offer it.

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    I think the UK is an exception with this; its interesting. Just a few checks around the office and with my own experience as well, you "lose" whatever validity remains if you renew early. – Burhan Khalid Dec 7 '14 at 5:14
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    I have also seen that some countries will only recognize the passport for 10 years after renewal, the 'extra' months you get will be lost at that end. – Willeke♦ May 16 '15 at 16:48
  • @Willeke that is true for Schengen, certainly, and presumably therefore for the Schengen-candidate EU countries, but I don't know of any other jurisdictions that apply this rule. – phoog Jul 15 '18 at 17:49
  • It only has to be one country to make you need a new passport and countries that do not have the rules now can change to them. Or the ones who have those rules now may stop having that restriction. – Willeke♦ Jul 15 '18 at 17:56
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    As of September 10th 2018, the exception for British passports here is no longer valid - you now get 10 years from renewal date, as with most other countries. – etmuse Sep 19 '18 at 9:17
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Logically, it will be from the renewal (issue) date. Otherwise the passport will be valid for more than 10 (or 5 years depending on your country, some countries like Jordan issue a 2 years passport sometimes).

Lets say you renew your passport in December 2012, if the expiration date will be 10 years from the previous passport's expiration date (December 2013 in your case) then the new passport will have the issue date of December 2012 and expiration date of December 2023! Your passport which will have a new passport number will be valid for 11 years which is logically wrong.

Anyway, Some countries, Like Sudan and Egypt, before they start issuing the new passports with the bar code, they used to add a renewal stamp which will usually has a new date of expiration which will be n years added to the previous expiration date. These were the good days when passports used to be hand written and this is not valid with the new passports.

UPDATE: It seems that UK citizens can have passports for more than 10 years (check the comment by Gagravarr). I think this is an exception.

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    Nothing wrong with having a passport with a validity of more than 10 years, it's very easy to do if you renew your UK passport early - the UK gives up to 9 months credit on new passports for early renewals – Gagravarr Nov 24 '12 at 21:54
  • Also, if you have a 10 year valid passport, and it expires, and you wait 10 years your next passport would already be expired by the time you get it! – easymoden00b Dec 5 '14 at 15:26
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For USA passports, the new passport is valid for 10 years from the issue date. See "How long is a passport valid and when should I renew my passport?" in the passport FAQs.

My boyfriend had to get his passport replaced (for name issues) recently, and even though his previous passport was only a year old, his new passport is still valid for the 10 years.

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In the case of Italy, the passport is not renewed but re-issued. Quoting from the Italian Police website:

Il passaporto è rilasciato ai cittadini italiani e ha durata decennale. Alla scadenza della validità, riportata all'interno del documento, non si rinnova ma si deve richiedere l'emissione di un nuovo passaporto.

With this in mind you can easily guess that you will get a new document with 10-years validity starting from 00:00 on the day of renewal to 23:59 of the day before that of renewal plus 10 years.

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  • Most countries actually reissue passports rather than renewing them, yet the term "renew" persists. So it has two possible meanings: it can refer to the extension of an existing document's validity, or it can refer to the issue of a new document to replace an existing one. – phoog Jul 15 '18 at 17:53
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The UK Passport Office have changed their policy sometime in 2014. They say they add unused months, but they add them at the starting date, not expiry date, So you lose all unused months!

The wording is the same, all unused months will be added, but you lose them all!

I am looking into Trading Standards.

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    Can you link a source for this change? – CGCampbell Oct 31 '14 at 16:31
  • My UK passport has 25 NOV 15 as the issue date, and 25 APR 26 as expiration date. It is valid from the time I did the renewal in November 2015 through 10 years after the expiration date of the passport it replaced. – Patricia Shanahan Apr 5 '16 at 8:54
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    Reading the phrase "but they add them at the starting date, not expiry date, So you lose all unused months!" actually caused me physical pain. – Unencoded Dec 16 '16 at 11:24

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