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I'm an Indian passport holder resident in Ireland. My Irish residency expires in 2023.

I booked a trip to Greece without fully checking the passport requirements.

The intended date of departure from Greece is the 25th of October, 2021, however my passport expires on the 12th of January, 2022.

Which means it violates the minimum requirement of the 3 month passport validity rule.

I'm hoping that since it's only 2 weeks short of the 3 month span, I will be granted the visa.

Are the embassies known to be lenient on the passport requirement based on the fact that I have a USA B1/B2 visa that expires in 2029 and I've visited Greece twice in the past?

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    If the passport validity period is a minimum requirement it’s hard to see how or why any discretion would be likely/allowed under the rules.
    – Traveller
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 17:32
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    @Traveller The rule do in fact allow some discretion (“However, in a justified case of emergency, this obligation may be waived;”) but I don't see how that would apply in this case.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 19:47

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No.

Even if the embassy for whatever reason should ignore the regulations and issue you a visa, the requirement is also checked when you enter Greece. When you fly to Greece, you must expect the airline to verify that your papers are valid for entering Greece and since they are not, deny boarding. And at last, even if also the airline makes a mistake and allows you onboard the plane, immigration control will also verify this and if they don't do a mistake as well, refuse entry.

So your plan is only going to work if both the embassy, the airline and the immigration officer don't see or ignore that your passport expires early. That is not likely to happen.

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    (+1) Importantly, it is both a requirement to enter, under article 6(1)(a)(i) of the Schengen Borders Code, and a requirement to issue a visa, under article 12(a) of the Visa Code so the mere fact that the OP hasn't provided either a travel document valid for 3 months after the end of the intended stay or a justification why this might be a case of emergency is enough to refuse the visa. I don't doubt some countries are doing it anyway but the Visa Code doesn't seem to provide for the issuance of visas going beyond the validity of the travel document presented, even for multiple-entry visas.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 19:53
  • @Relaxed It is common practice and I can't find anything in the visa code prohibiting the issuance of multiple entry visas beyond the validity of the current passort. The conditions under which multiple entry visa should be issued and the guidelines for determining the duration of a new multiple entry visum (these are further elaborated in the Visa Code Handbook) do also not mention the remaining validity of the current passport as a relevant criteria for deciding how long a new visum should be valid.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 20:27
  • What about article 12? And article 24, especially “unless the validity of the visa would exceed that of the travel document“? This article also explicitly references the article 6(1)(a) of the Schengen Borders Code, thus making its contents directly relevant to visa issuance decisions.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 20:51
  • @Relaxed Article 12 only requires that the is passport is valid three months beyond the last intended departure. If multiple entry visas are issued to travellers with a 'good' visa history for several years, the visa are anyway themselves valid well beyond the currently last intended departure. But you are right that the visa handbook (I should sometimes read more thoroughly before saying something) says that also these visa should not be issued beyond the validity of the passport.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 11:00
  • In reality many countries do though and Germany even offers the service to move still valid visas from expired into new passports if the bearer wishes so. German authorities do however also emphasize in their FAQs that a valid visum in an expired passport is valid for travel together with a new passport. I have removed that statement from my answer. It is in any case not relevant for OP's situation.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 11:02

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