Travel can be chaotic, and if you’re not fully prepared, it can get even worse. Before your next international trip, the last thing you want is to discover that your passport is expired, damaged, missing or doesn’t meet your destination’s entry requirements.
Here are 12 passport tips that can help you avoid major travel headaches.
1. Check Your Passport’s Validity
Before booking an international trip, find your passport and make sure it’s valid. Many countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date. Even if you’re only visiting for a day, you could be denied boarding or entry if you don’t meet that requirement. If your passport is getting close to expiring, renew it now instead of paying expensive expedited fees later. Here’s how.
RELATED: Protect Your Valuables When You Travel With a Money Belt
2. Renew Early
Don’t wait until the last minute to renew your passport. While processing times have improved, they can still fluctuate depending on demand. I recommend renewing at least six months before any planned international travel, especially if your passport is close to expiring or running out of blank pages.
3. Find Out Whether You Need a Visa or Travel Authorization
I’ve had countless friends show up at the airport only to discover they needed a visa—or an electronic travel authorization they didn’t know about.
Requirements vary by country and can change at any time. Before every international trip, check the U.S. State Department’s country information page to see whether you need a visa, an electronic travel authorization (such as Canada’s eTA or the U.K.’s ETA), vaccinations or other entry documents. It’s also the best place to find embassy and consulate information if you run into trouble abroad.
4. Make Digital Copies
Before every international trip, take a photo of your passport’s identification page and save it securely on your phone and in the cloud. I also email a copy to myself and leave one with a trusted family member. If your passport is ever lost or stolen, having a copy can make replacing it at a U.S. embassy or consulate much easier.
5. Consider Getting a Second Passport
If you travel internationally often and frequently need visas, consider applying for a second U.S. passport. This allows you to send one passport away for visa processing while continuing to travel with the other. It’s especially useful for business travelers and anyone visiting countries with conflicting visa requirements.
6. Never Put Your Passport in Checked Luggage or Your Back Pocket
This is one of the biggest travel mistakes you can make. Always keep your passport with you in your carry-on or personal item—never in checked baggage. If your checked bag is delayed or lost, you could be stuck without your most important travel document. And please don’t carry your passport in your back pocket. It’s one of the easiest places for pickpockets to steal it or for it to accidentally fall out. Just ask my wife about the time she lost hers in Estonia.
7. Always Look Twice
Whenever you leave a taxi, rideshare, airplane, train or hotel room, make it a habit to look back one last time. I can’t tell you how many readers have left behind passports, wallets and phones in seatback pockets, hotel safes or the back seats of taxis. A quick double-check can save you hours—or even days—of frustration.
8. Keep It Safe
When you’re not crossing a border or checking into a hotel, you may not need to carry your passport everywhere you go. A reader once shared advice they received from the U.S. Embassy in Paris after having their passports stolen on the Metro: Keep your passport securely stored rather than carrying it around all day. Depending on your destination, that could mean using your hotel’s room safe, a portable travel safe, a secure money belt or a Scottevest jacket with 20+ pockets. Just be sure you always know exactly where it is.
9. Use Color-Coded Stickers for Family Travel
This tip comes from reader Karol H., a retired flight attendant. When traveling with a family, put a tiny colored sticker with each person’s initial on the back cover of their passport. It makes it much easier to hand out the correct passport while standing in immigration or customs lines instead of opening each one to check whose is whose. It’s a simple trick that can save a surprising amount of time.
10. Get Global Entry (or NEXUS)
10. Get Global Entry (or NEXUS)If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while (sign up here), you know I’m a huge fan of Global Entry. It speeds up your arrival back into the United States, includes TSA PreCheck and now uses facial recognition at many airports, making the process even faster than before.
If you travel to Canada frequently, NEXUS is an even better value since it includes NEXUS benefits plus Global Entry and TSA PreCheck. Many premium travel credit cards will reimburse the application fee, making it an even better deal.
11. Use an Expediter When Necessary
If you need a passport quickly and don’t want to deal with the process yourself, a reputable passport expediter can often save you time and stress. I’ve used several over the years when deadlines were tight. Just be sure you’re working with a legitimate company that specializes in passport services.
12. Renew Online If You’re Eligible
One of the best improvements in recent years is online passport renewal. Many Americans can now renew their passports online through the U.S. State Department instead of mailing paperwork. Not everyone qualifies, but if you do, it’s usually the easiest way to renew.
Before starting the process, check the State Department’s website to make sure you’re eligible.
Final Thoughts
Your passport is the single most important document you’ll carry when traveling internationally. Spending just a few minutes checking the expiration date, making digital backups and storing it securely can save you hours of stress—not to mention expensive last-minute fees or even a ruined vacation.
Do you have a passport tip I missed? Let me know in the comments.
Editor’s note (Updated July 2026): We’ve updated this guide with the latest passport rules and travel tips. Some older comments below refer to a previous version of this article.
Great!
These tips are very useful. Yes these are quite helpful when you are going to somewhere and follow steps and tips mention in this post at the time of travel, purchasing these great ideas will help you to save your time and money.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Boss, please i am eagerly waiting & looking forward! You would have noticed that i enjoy looking up stories that have to do with planes, traveling/ flying..that’s true –because it gives me hope and makes my mind believe that i will be meeting you very soon, this makes me really elated! i decided to refrain from communicating with u through mom’s telephone because i believe it has been hacked by enemies”” who can’t face their own lives but want to know what’s up with our plans.. i will tell u why i have this belief /proofs when we see. i think they have not been able to hack my email yet..so it’s more private to chat with u via this channel. the only problem is now how private the cafe i’m using is..as people around/in the cafe get also nosy and try to look up your monitor a lot in order to see what’s up. i can’t wait for all these obstacles to become a thing of the past! i pray very very very very soon as prophecies show….in JESUS NAME I PRAY, AMEN!!! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN EVER…. and you are always in my thoughts…..
i wasn’t even the one that called the flight attendant’s notice .. she (attendant) noticed that the lady’s seat was far pushed back/reclined into my space and i was not comfortable..
hi Boss. please my love i prefer the window seat in front. first seat best.. the last time i was coming back, i sat on 2nd seat by window & the lady in front kept reclining her seat into my space to my discomfort. i told her but she refused to comply. later the attendants noticed & cautioned her but that still didn’t make much difference. but when going i sat on the type of seat i am requesting for now and i enjoyed my journey…lol (1st seat in front by the window). i also experienced seating at the back–extreme rear and in the middle parts in between the aisles–that was actually the worst for me. i was uncomfortable as my feet & carry-on bag seemed to be disturbing other passengers just as much as they were disturbing me too! lol…
Super tips! I didn’t know about the extra pages option. Sign me up!
One additional tip I’d add: consider investing in a scarf with a hidden zip-up pocket (or sew your own). You can hide your passport in there (along with cash and important cards). If you ever end up getting robbed, it would be unlikely that the robber would ask for your scarf.
I read something recently that they were going to stop the service of adding extra pages. It used to be that extra pages were added for free but then they started charging. I was able to beat the deadline on that and then requested the large size passport the next time I renewed. However, what I read recently (wish I remembered the source) said that they were going to stop that option, too, so that as you run out of passport pages, you will just have to get a new passport even if it has not expired yet. I hope I am wrong about this or that the source I read was wrong.
You’re not wrong. They stopped adding them
It’s true that the US Passport Office stopped adding extra pages to existing and valid passports AS OF JAN 1,2016 for security reasons. Now the only options are to GO for the larger passport at 52 pages when one renews. Remember the US passport is valid for 10 years so if you are a frequent international traveler opt for the 52 page passport!
I also keep a current photo of my husband inside the back cover of my passport and vice versa. If I can not find him in a crowd or in a place I can not go like the mens restroom, I have a photo to show another person.
Another passport tip: When arriving another country, be sure the customs agent uses fresh ink when stamping your passport.
An incident happened to me last year in Frankfurt when I was LEAVING Europe. The agent was verifying my ARRIVAL into Europe and could not find a stamp in my passport. After much “sweating”, the agent came to the conclusion a barely legible stamp in my book must have been my entry into Europe 3 weeks earlier.
Good one!
How can I forward the passport tips to my daughter? Hear you all the time on Leo Leporte and actually grew up in Manhattan Beach where my daughter lives now.
Thanks for all the good tips. Just subscribed to your newsletter..
Jeremy
Thanks for the kudos! I will email you the link (https://johnnyjet.com/2015/06/10-passport-tips-that-will-save-you-time-money-and-headaches/) now
My brother recommended I would possibly like this website.
He was entirely right. This post actually made my day.
You cann’t consider just how much time I had spent for this info!
Thank you!
Put a strip of masking tape on the back of your passport and write your passport number on it. Saves time fumbling through the pages when filling out customs and other forms.
In addition to scanning a color copy of the passport, I upload it to my Evernote account where it is available to me wherever I go plus it makes it searchable on upload.
Scan a copy of your passport and print it out or even to your phone. Keep a copy at home or with a friend in case you loose your passport overseas. I also keep a printed copy in my checked suitcaes just in case.
Good one! Can’t believe I forgot to include it
With today’s “access anywhere” email systems (like Gmail or Hotmail, scan your passport and mail the scan to yourself. Save it in a folder that you never delete items from. Even if you loose everything, including luggage or wherever you might keep a printed copy, all you need is an internet terminal to print out a copy
Hey Johnny, love the tips! I also use Scottevest and ID Sronghold (idstronghold.com) I put my credit cards and passport in a dedicated sleeve for each and never have to worry about skimmers stealing the info. from them. Also, they sell dedicated wallets, purses, etc. that block the skimmers. I quit using the sleeve for credit cards and just use their secure wallet and passport sleeve. Phil
Don’t forget to PENCIL in where you are staying. Even post-its can fall out. Better to pencil it in, and erase as your location changes. My sister left a passport behind. She called the American Embassy and they informed her they did not have it, but the American Express Office did. The American Express Office could have contacted her immediately, if only she had the info in the passport. (It was several days between when she left it, and when she realized it was missing.)
Loved your passport tips but I didn’t see 1 of the most important ones… Make color copies of your main passport info page. Leave one at home with someone you trust and leave one in hotel/friends house when oversees. Can be a tremendous help if you lose your passport oversees.
It’s also a good idea to make sure your passport is signed where indicated. US passports aren’t technically valid unless signed and in that case TSA often wants further acceptable ID that you may not be carrying with you. Potentially saves some hassle.