What the Document Expiry Planner does
This planner turns a pile of expiry dates into a list of things to do and when to do them. Each document gets a renewal lead time - the weeks the renewal actually takes - so the date that matters is not the expiry but the day you should start. It sorts everything by that date, flags what is already late, checks passports against a destination's validity rule before a trip, and exports calendar reminders as a standard .ics file.
It is built for the way these things go wrong. Nobody forgets a passport expires in a year; they forget that renewing it takes six weeks and that the country they are flying to wants six months of validity left on arrival. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is saved unless you tick the box, which stores the list in this browser alone.
How to use it
- Add each document: what it is, whose it is, its type and its expiry date. The type sets a sensible renewal lead time, which you can change to whatever your issuing office really takes.
- For passports, add the issue date too if you are travelling to the Schengen area - the ten-year rule is checked against the issue date, not the expiry date.
- If you have a trip in mind, enter the date you travel and the date you leave the destination, then choose the validity rule that destination applies.
- Read the findings: what has expired, what should already be in progress, what to start within the next month, and any document that falls short of the trip rule.
- Download the .ics file and open it in your calendar. It creates an all-day reminder on the day each renewal should start, and one on each expiry date.
Reading the results
"Start renewing" is the expiry date minus the lead time. It is the date the planner sorts by, because that is the date you can still act on.
"Start now" means the lead time has already run out: the document has not expired, but you no longer have the full time the renewal normally needs. "Start soon" means that point is within 30 days.
The trip column compares each passport or ID card against the validity the destination requires, counted from the day you leave that country rather than the day you arrive - that is how the common rules are written.
A document that meets the expiry rule can still fail the Schengen ten-year rule, because passports renewed early used to carry up to nine extra months across. The planner checks both separately and says which one failed.
Worked example: a family trip in four months
Three passports: one expiring in 250 days, one in 900, one in 140. The trip departs in 120 days and the family flies home 14 days later, on day 134, to a destination that applies the six-month rule.
Counting six months from day 134 means every passport must be valid to roughly day 316. The 900-day passport is fine. The 250-day passport is about 66 days short, and the 140-day one is short by well over five months - both need replacing before the trip, not after it.
The 250-day passport also has a 120-day lead time, so its "start renewing" date is day 130 - after the family flies. Sorted by that date rather than by expiry, the planner puts it at the top and flags it as work that must happen now.
The second adult's passport was issued 3,500 days ago, which is more than ten years before the travel date. Its expiry is comfortable, but under the Schengen ten-year rule that passport is not valid for entry at all - the single most common way people are turned away at the gate with a document that looks perfectly current.
Formulas and scoring rules
- Days to expiry
days_to_expiry = expiry_date - todayWhole calendar days. 0 means it expires today; a negative number means it has expired.- Start renewing
renew_by = expiry_date - lead_days- Status
expired if days_to_expiry < 0; start now if renew_by has passed; start soon if renew_by is within 30 days; otherwise planned- Destination validity rule
required_until = date_you_leave_the_country + rule_monthsSix months is the common rule, three months is the Schengen rule, and month arithmetic clamps at the end of a short month.- Schengen ten-year rule
issue_date must be after (date_of_entry - 10 years)Independent of the expiry date.- Calendar export
one all-day VEVENT on renew_by and one on the expiry date, per RFC 5545Dates already in the past are left out.
The two passport rules that catch people out
The first is validity beyond your stay. Many countries require a passport valid for six months after you leave them, and airlines enforce it at check-in because they carry the cost of flying a refused passenger home. Three months is the Schengen figure, written into the Schengen Borders Code as validity for at least three months after the intended date of departure from the area.
The second is the age of the passport. The Schengen rules also require it to have been issued within the previous ten years on the day you enter. A passport renewed early used to have the unexpired months added on, so a document with a perfectly good expiry date can have an issue date more than ten years back. Both rules must be satisfied; passing one says nothing about the other.
Lead times are the whole point
A renewal is not an event on the expiry date; it is a process that has to be finished by then. Passport offices publish turnaround times that stretch at busy periods, some renewals require your current document to be sent away, professional certifications often need training hours completed before you can apply, and cancellation windows on contracts can close months before the term ends.
Setting the lead time honestly - and generously - is what turns this from a list of dates into a plan. The defaults here are deliberately cautious, and every one of them is editable, because only you know how long your issuing office actually takes.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- It does not know any country's entry requirements. You choose which rule to apply; the planner applies it arithmetically. Always confirm the current rule on the destination government's own site and with your airline.
- Renewal lead times are defaults you should replace with real ones. Processing times change with the season and with the issuing office.
- It cannot tell you whether a document is genuine, still recognised, or has been reported lost or cancelled - only what the date you typed implies.
- Blank visa pages, minimum-validity rules for visas and residence permits, and rules that apply to children's documents differently are not modelled.
- Nothing is stored unless you tick the save box, and then only in this browser on this device. There is no account, no sync and no backup - keep the CSV if the list matters.
Privacy: where your data goes
Everything you paste, type or drop is processed in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, logged, stored or sent to analytics. Session recording and tag-manager scripts are switched off on this page.
Standards and sources
- RFC 5545 - iCalendar object specification (VEVENT and alarms) - checked 19 Sep 2026
- Schengen Borders Code (Regulation (EU) 2016/399) - entry conditions
- EU travel documents and validity requirements
- UK government - passport validity when travelling abroad
- US State Department - passport validity requirements by country
Frequently asked questions
What is the six-month passport rule?
Many countries require your passport to remain valid for at least six months after the date you leave them, and some count it from the date of arrival. Airlines check it at the gate. Enter your trip dates and pick the rule, and the planner works out the date your passport must be valid to and how many days short it is.
Does the six-month rule apply to Europe?
The Schengen area uses three months rather than six: the passport must be valid for at least three months after the date you intend to leave the area. It also applies a separate rule that the passport must have been issued within the previous ten years. Both are checked here, separately.
My passport does not expire for a year - why is it flagged?
Because the renewal lead time has already started. If renewing takes 120 days and the passport expires in 100, you are past the point where a normal renewal would comfortably finish. The planner sorts by that date rather than the expiry date for exactly this reason.
How far ahead should I renew a passport?
Far enough that the processing time plus any travel plans fit comfortably, which in practice means several months rather than several weeks. Check your issuing authority's current published turnaround, add a margin for peak season, and put that figure in the lead-time box.
Can I get reminders in my own calendar?
Yes. The .ics download is a standard RFC 5545 calendar file containing two all-day events per document - one on the day the renewal should start and one on the expiry date - and it opens in Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar and anything else that reads iCalendar.
Is it safe to type my document details here?
The page never sends anything anywhere, and it is designed so you do not need to type anything sensitive: use a description such as "Passport, Adult 1" rather than a document number. Nothing is stored unless you tick the save box, which writes only to this browser's local storage.
What happens if I renew before the expiry date?
It depends on the document. Some issuing authorities add the unexpired time to the new document and some do not, which is precisely how a passport can have a valid expiry date and an issue date more than ten years old. Enter the issue date so the ten-year check can be made.
Can I track documents for several people at once?
Yes - each row has a holder field, and the timeline sorts everyone's documents together so you see the next thing that needs doing regardless of whose it is. The CSV and the calendar file both carry the holder through.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
