Can I come to the DR with a passport that expires in like 4 or 5 months?

[Tashi Siu's Dad]

...I called the USA embassy in SD just this summer to ask about how long I could use my passport on the airlines before it expires, I told them the airlines told me 6 months or less no travel...the embassy said they are wrong you can use until ex. date? dont listen to that embassy, always check, most if not all airlines want at least 6 months ....and I got the new passport From SD embassy in about 9 days..........Doc.............

I say believe the airline as they are "your ride" in and out of the Country. They have the legal right to refuse to transport you if they think you are violating THEIR policy. I always make it a point to renew my passport AT LEAST 6 months prior to the date of expiration, because I never really know until the last minute when and where I'm going to travel.

 

[SKY]

As soon as I have less than a year remaining I am renewing.

 

[Mauricio]

Adding to my earlier comment, in August I was flying with my daughter to DR, by then her passport was still valid for 7 months. The immigration officer in DR said: [my daughters name] should get a new passport as her birthday present (birthday coming along in October). Even though he didn’t say anything about any six months rule he was definitely hinting at the fact that her passport was expiring ‘soon’. I didn’t pay too much attention to it but since were talking about it now, it makes sense to me they are actually checking the 6 month rule, he was probably looking for passports expiring before early February. Feeling even more tranquilo I can fetch her new passport coming Thursday. I hate going through airport / migration processes with a small worry in the back of my mind we won’t get through.

 

[DRob]

So here's the problem with all that: you are putting yourselves at the collective whim of the immigration department, the individual immigration officer, the airline, and the agents at the check-in and boarding gates.

All to skirt around an issue that can be resolved in a few days by heading to your local post office or a nearby passport control center.

Seems like a lot of stress to try and avoid something that is easy, simple, relatively inexpensive (particularly if you're traveling internationally more than once a year) and will give you up to another decade's worth of use, if you simply apply some common sense.

We can't even get into a discussion about how Global Entry should be your new best friend....