WHEN travelling abroad in certain countries - the USA and many others - British citizens are required to have up to six months left on their passports before they expire.

Mine expires in November, 1999, and so if I want to go to USA next July or August, I would need to renew it before I go and before it expires.

I understand that the authorities renew from the date of application in these circumstances and not from the expiry date. Why?

I have paid for a 10-year passport, not a nine-years-and-six-months one.

RAYMOND DICKINSON, Littlemoor Road, Clitheroe.

Footnote: A spokesperson for the Passport Agency said: "There are a number of reasons why we are unable to renew passports to include the unexpired amount of the old passport or add an extra six months validity. "Along with most countries in the world, we issue passports to the maximum period of validity, which is 10 years. This is the internationally-accepted length of issue. New passports for periods longer than this would lead to travellers encountering problems with immigration authorities abroad.

"Also, our computerised passport-issuing system gives all passports issued on a particular day a common expiry date.

"The extra administration involved in altering the expiry date in certain passports would slow down the issuing process, increase the potential for errors and cost more."

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