Must your passport be valid for 6 months after the date of return from your trip to the United States or is a valid passport sufficient? . So, to definitively resolve the issue, I asked the President of the United States Tourism Office in France.
The answer is clear: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Canada are members of the “6-Month Club”, a club of 126 countries where nationals do not need a valid passport for more than 6 months to travel to the United States. A simple passport valid for the duration of your stay in the United States is sufficient!
The list of member countries of the 6-month club
The complete list of members of the 6-month club is available on the website of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. agency in charge of customs and border control. Please note that all European countries are included in this list.
Please note that Algeria and Morocco are not included in this list: if you are of Algerian or Moroccan nationality, you must therefore present a valid passport 6 months after the date of your return.
Why is the question so controversial?
If the list of member countries of the 6-Month Club is clearly established by the American authorities, why does the question continue to raise doubts and debate? The reason is simple: the official website of the French administration persists in posting an alert on its page dedicated to the formalities for travelling to the United States. According to this site, “it is recommended to have a passport with a remaining validity date of at least 6 months on the day of departure from the United States”.
This recommendation is indeed a mistake and you should not pay attention to it. The official website of the French administration has been asked several times by the American authorities to correct this sentence, but nothing has been done. You can therefore forget this opinion and stick to the official position of the American authorities. Only the official list of the 6-Month Club is authentic.
