Passport validity inside Schengen Area for African person

Question

We are Italian citizens living in Germany. We would like to go in vacation to Italy with a Nigerian friend and her child. While the child has German nationality and passport, she is a legal resident in Germany but with Nigerian citizenship.

The problem is that we would like to go in August and her passport expires in September. Does the six month validity rule for the passport apply also to travels inside Schengen area? We could not be in time to renew the passport so we worry about what could happen to the woman.

Note: I searched a lot for info also here, but all the answers I've found were for people who intended to enter and then leave Schengen, there is no case similar to ours where a "third party national" already lives in Schengen and wants to travel inside.

Answer 1

The passport validity rule is not six months, per se, but three months beyond the expected date of departure from the Schengen area.

But it doesn't apply if you are traveling on an EU common format residnce permit (a red and blue card with a bull and stars). In that case your passport only needs to be valid during your journey. As a resident, you are not required to depart from the Schengen area while your residence is valid.

Looking up an intra-Schengen itinerary in Timatic, with Nigerian citizenship and German residence, results in the following:

Passport required.
- Passports and other documents accepted for entry issued to residents of Germany must be valid on arrival.

Without EU residence, the rule shown is:

Passport required.
- Passports and other documents accepted for entry must be valid for a minimum of 3 months beyond the period of intended stay.

So you can see that as long as you travel with your passport and EU residence permit, that this rule does not apply to you.