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Stephan Goldstein

On Wed, 6 Apr 2011 13:22:14 -0700, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

My passport was renewed in 2005, expiry in 2015.

Is it still valid as-is, or have requirements changed requiring a new
issue?

(I haven't traveled outside the country since 1995 ;-)

Should be valid. My wife's was renewed in 2002 (expires next year),
mine in 2004 (expires in 2014). We both traveled outside the US last
year without difficulty, she just got a Russian visa for a boating
trip this summer, and all we've been told is that many countries
require that your passport be valid for a minimum of six months after
your date of entry.

You can expect that your next passport will have more rigorous ID
features included (e.g. an embedded RFID chip). There may be some
countries which will put you through a slightly different
immigration/customs process if you have an older passport which isn't
machine-scannable.

Yes, and thanks to our lovely US government, which went around
substantial foreign opposition and got this slipped in the back
door, that RFID technology is readable from a distance. A bad guy
can easily sit in an airport with a briefcase and interrogate all
passing passports.

Fortunately, a sheet of aluminum foil solves the problem. Folks will
also sell you shielded passport cases that are a bit more stylish.