Check you passport. Expiry is 10 years from date of issue and may be sooner that stated expiry date

[MoodySabre]

What about the rest of the world ? i am due to travel to USA and Canada in October this year, my passport is valid until June 23 …. All good, however the issue date is Jan 2013. If I have to get a new passport before I travel, I would need to get it in September virtually a year early. Any opinions?

Foreign Office - Canada entry requirements (lots of Covid rules too)
Passport validity

If you are visiting Canada, your passport should be valid for the proposed duration of your stay. No additional period of validity beyond this is required.


Check with your travel provider to make sure your passport and other travel documents meet their requirements.

Visas

British Citizens don’t usually need a visa to visit Canada for short periods, but you’ll need to get an Electronic Travel Authorisation before you travel (see below).

USA
Passport validity

If you are visiting the USA your passport should be valid for the proposed duration of your stay. You don’t need any additional period of validity on your passport beyond this.


Check with your travel provider to make sure your passport and other travel documents meet their requirements.


The US Customs and Border Protection programme Global Entry gets pre-approved travellers through border control faster at some US airports. If you’re a British citizen you can register to get a UK background check on GOV.UK. If you pass the background checks, you’ll be invited to apply for Global Entry.

BTW - my brother's friends travelling from Canada into the USA were asked at the border if they had ever used cannabis. They said yes and were given an immediate lifetime travel ban.

 

[mjcoon]

BTW - my brother's friends travelling from Canada into the USA were asked at the border if they had ever used cannabis. They said yes and were given an immediate lifetime travel ban.

Sounds like the famous instance of a smart-arse being asked the standard question whether he had any intention of overthrowing the US Government and replying "Sole purpose of visit..." And then being surprised that the jobsworth did not have a sense of humour...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Sounds like the famous instance of a smart-arse being asked the standard question whether he had any intention of overthrowing the US Government and replying "Sole purpose of visit..." And then being surprised that the jobsworth did not have a sense of humour...

I think immigration officials - especially US ones - have their sense of humour and commonsense surgically removed on appointment.

Even officials at places where there's absolutely no point in the immigration ritual (e.g. Svalbard and the Falklands) take themselves very seriously indeed. In both cases, people arrive from places where they've already passed immigration. The only important question you used to get asked on arrival at Svalbard was "Where are your provisions?" and you went back on the same flight if you didn't have a good answer. And going through immigration in the Falklands when you've just flown from a military airport in the UK on a ticket booked through the Foreign Office seems a bit OTT. But the Falklands are the only place where I've been warned about not having 6 months on my passport (I was only there for a couple of weeks and got away with being warned!)

 

[LittleSister]

. . . from the end of next year UK citizens will require an ETIAS visa waiver.

It's not important, but I find the concept of a 'visa waiver' (for the EU or anywhere else) illogical. A visa is to my mind a document or document endorsement that allows travel in a particular area. A visa waiver is therefore a visa, is it not? Different types of visas are available, it's just that some of them are called 'visa waivers'!

 

[lustyd]

The only important question you used to get asked on arrival at Svalbard was "Where are your provisions?"

I found it interesting that when Uma sailed there they said Svalbard had the best stocked supermarket they'd seen since Netherlands, and they returned with most of their long term stores intact. It looked like a nice place but way too cold for my liking!

It's not important, but I find the concept of a 'visa waiver' (for the EU or anywhere else) illogical. A visa is to my mind a document or document endorsement that allows travel in a particular area. A visa waiver is therefore a visa, is it not? Different types of visas are available, it's just that some of them are called 'visa waivers'!

100% agree, the main difference is the ones with "waiver" on them are more blatantly money making schemes than those without.

 

[syvictoria]

Personally I would say don't look a gift horse in the mouth! At €7 every 3 years, I'm hard pressed to think of anything else that represents better value for money in 2022!!!

 

[lustyd]

Personally I would say don't look a gift horse in the mouth! At €7 every 3 years, I'm hard pressed to think of anything else that represents better value for money in 2022!!!

How about free travel? That's better value by a long way. I'm not sure how you got to "gift horse" from needlessly charging for visa free access

 

[syvictoria]

How about free travel? That's better value by a long way. I'm not sure how you got to "gift horse" from needlessly charging for visa free access

Yes, granted, but now we're on the outside. On that basis, I still say fantastic value.

 

[lustyd]

Yes, granted, but now we're on the outside. On that basis, I still say fantastic value.

Yes, we negotiated brilliantly from a position of power.

 

[syvictoria]

As a comparison, and out of interest, I'm struggling to find a reliable source stating the proposed fee for the UK's own eTA visa waiver system once it comes on line?

 

[MoodySabre]

As a comparison, and out of interest, I'm struggling to find a reliable source stating the proposed fee for the UK's own eTA visa waiver system once it comes on line?

The official site eTA United Kingdom Official UK Visa Immigration

The nonsense therein
It is applicable for the international visitors and costs between 35 UK $ (approximately 20,40 €) and must be paid when the payment for the eTA-UK is made and is also valid 2 years.

WHAT?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I found it interesting that when Uma sailed there they said Svalbard had the best stocked supermarket they'd seen since Netherlands, and they returned with most of their long term stores intact. It looked like a nice place but way too cold for my liking!

Svalbard has changed greatly since I was last there in 1986! Then it was a company town pure and simple. There was a store, but it was for tourists only and didn't stock staple foods. If you needed supplies, you had to have an arrangement with SNSK, which is how we did it for 3 of my 4 trips there. Independent enterprises were just starting in 1985, on my second trip, catering for adventure tourism. But of course, Longyearbyen has become a more open town since then, with the establishment of a University, and a wider economy.