Does Italy accept extended passports issued 5 years ago for a Schengen visa?

Question

I am planning to apply for an Italy Schengen visa. I have a US Green Card, and I obtained my home country passport in 2018, which expired in August 2023. However, I recently extended my passport in Canada for an additional 5 years. Now, my question is: Will Italy issue me a Schengen visa for my extended passport? If so, please let me know if it is better to schedule an appointment directly with the embassy or use other agencies to assist with the process.

Answer 1

The Schengen Visa Code requires passports to have been issued within the last ten years before the application. Article 12:

Travel document

The applicant shall present a valid travel document satisfying the following criteria:

(a) its validity shall extend at least three months after the intended date of departure from the territory of the Member States or, in the case of several visits, after the last intended date of departure from the territory of the Member States. However, in a justified case of emergency, this obligation may be waived;

(b) it shall contain at least two blank pages;

(c) it shall have been issued within the previous 10 years.

(The Schengen Borders Code similarly requires the passport to have been issued less than ten years before the traveler's entry into the Schengen area.)

These rules are applied without regard to the extension of the passport.

Some Schengen countries have third-party companies that handle their visa applications. If Italy has such an arrangement in the US (or wherever you currently reside) then you will be unable to apply directly at a consulate. (Their website is currently down for maintenance.) You will have to use the agency.

Apart from those arrangements, other agencies are generally not to be recommended unless you have some specific difficulty that you need help with. We hear stories of such agencies making mistakes with their clients' applications(or worse), leaving the clients to clean up the mess or saddling them with a negative record. The risk may be low, but why bear it if you don't have to?

In other words, if you're asking about an agency that acts as an agent of the government issuing the visa, then you probably don't have a choice but to use that agency. If you asking about an agency that acts as your agent, you should proceed with caution and should probably use such an agency only if you have a well defined need that it can meet.