French/US citizen traveling on expired passport

Question

My daughter is a US and French citizen. We leave in a couple of days for France and realized her passports for both countries are expired. We are going from the US to France. She has her National ID card for France which isn’t expired and is accepted for entry into France through passport exemptions. What I can’t figure out is if she will be able to board the plane without a valid passport?

We have a solution for returning to the US so aren’t concerned about that. Only getting through security and on the plane to get to France.

Answer 1

The places where checks happen are:

• During check-in. Airlines are required to check that you have the necessary documents to enter the destination country, and in the case of the US, to report that you were in board (and left the country).

  You can enter France with just a national ID card, but I would be surprised if the airline accepted it in this situation. Don’t have any evidence either way though.

• At the TSA checkpoint. You can actually travel without any ID at all, there’s a special process for that, but it takes a lot longer (IIRC they advise 2 hours). Bring the expired US passport and any other form of identification, especially anything with a picture. Of course if she’s a minor she doesn’t actually need any ID, but if she’s close to 18 any way to prove it is useful.

• Upon arrival in France, where a national ID card is sufficient.

So it all boils down to the airline accepting the national ID card. You may try to call them to see what they say (or hop to the airport today and ask at a check-in desk).

The alternative is to get an emergency passport, but there are conditions for that, and if you are leaving tomorrow it’s probably extremely tight.

In any case if you do try it, you should budget a lot more time than usual at the airport.

Answer 2

Passport is required for international air travel to and from the US, and US citizens are required by law to bear a valid US passport when they leave the country (See 8 USC 1185(b)). Bearing an expired passport to satisfy that requirement may count as a misuse of passport, a felony (18 USC 1544).

Example from the American Airlines guidance:

A passport is required for all international travel. If you're traveling anywhere overseas, you need a passport to board an international flight and to enter the country.

Similarly, from Delta (highlighted at source):

When you’re traveling outside of the United States, make sure you have all required travel documents. A passport is required for all international travel.

While you may get lucky and the airline agent would let you board without any passport at all (highly unlikely on its own), the troubles will start long before that - at the checkin and the TSA security check.