The Week Before an International Trip: What to Actually Do
Quick answer: In the seven days before an international flight, three things cause most of the trouble — a passport that does not meet the destination's validity rule, an entry requirement nobody looked up, and a bank card that gets frozen on first use abroad. All three are cheap to fix at home and expensive to fix at an airport.
Why a week is the right amount of time
A week is long enough to replace a card, fill a prescription, print something, or get an electronic travel authorisation that takes a few days to come back. It is short enough that you already know your plans are real.
Anything on this list that fails with a week to go is an inconvenience. The same thing failing at the departure gate is a cancelled trip.
Start with the passport, and read the rule carefully
The mistake is checking that your passport has not expired. Many countries ask for it to remain valid for a period beyond your departure — often several months — and some airlines will not board you if it does not. The date on the passport is not the test; the destination's rule is.
Check it against your return date, not the date you leave.
Then check what that passport needs to get in
Entry requirements follow the passport you hold, not the country you live in. Two people on the same flight from the same city can face completely different rules.
Look up your destination's requirements yourself, on their government's own site. Electronic authorisations in particular can take days to be approved, and a rejected one leaves you needing a full visa.
If you have a pending immigration case, check re-entry before you book
This is the part that catches people out. Leaving the United States with certain applications pending can affect them, and some statuses need specific documents to return. If you are in the middle of a case, the question is not "can I go" but "what do I need in order to come back".
That answer depends on your situation, and it is worth getting from someone qualified rather than from a forum.
Money, medicine, and the small stuff
Cards. Some banks still freeze cards on the first foreign transaction. Take two cards from different banks, kept in different places.
Prescriptions. Fill them before you go and keep them in the original labelled packaging, in hand luggage. Rules about what may be carried vary by country, and a pharmacy label answers the question before it is asked.
Copies. Photograph your passport, your cards and your tickets, and put the photos somewhere you can reach from a borrowed device.
The evening before
Charge everything, download your maps and boarding passes for offline use, and put your documents in one place you will not have to search for at 5am. Then leave the list alone — everything on it was done days ago, which was the point.
10 steps · Checklist
The week before you fly
Seven days is enough time to fix almost anything on this list. The morning of your flight is not.
Check your passport's expiry date against the rule, not the date
Many countries require several months of validity beyond your return. Check what your destination asks for.
Confirm what your passport needs to enter
A visa, an electronic authorisation, or nothing at all — it depends on your passport, not your residence.
Check the rules for coming back, too
If you are on a visa or a pending case, re-entry has its own requirements. Leaving is rarely the hard part.
Tell your bank you're travelling, or check that you don't need to
A frozen card in another timezone takes a day to fix.
Get enough local currency for the first day
Airport rates are bad, but arriving with nothing is worse.
Fill prescriptions and keep them in original packaging
Carry them in hand luggage with the label attached.
and 4 more — saving takes all of them.
Free, and yours to edit — tick items off on the web or in the MyCheck app.