Ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn, la pasporto validos.

Here ĉu ... ĉu introduces two alternatives: whether ... or.

So:

• Ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn = whether for one year or for ten years

This is a different use of ĉu from the very common yes/no-question use, as in Ĉu vi venos? In this sentence, it is not asking a yes/no question by itself; it is setting up a contrast between two possibilities.

The -n ending here marks the accusative of duration (also called the accusative of measure or extent).

In Esperanto, a time expression can take -n to show how long something lasts:

• Mi atendis unu horon. = I waited for one hour.
• Li loĝis tie tri jarojn. = He lived there for three years.

So in your sentence:

• unu jaron = for one year
• dek jarojn = for ten years

There is no direct object here. The -n does not mean the passport is “validating” the years. It marks duration.

Because Esperanto marks number very regularly:

• singular noun: jaro
• plural noun: jaroj

Then both forms get -n because they are duration expressions:

• unu jaro → unu jaron
• dek jaroj → dek jarojn

So the difference is simply:

• one year = singular
• ten years = plural

Because Esperanto often uses the accusative of duration instead of a preposition.

So all of these are possible in principle, but the version with -n is very normal and compact:

• unu jaron
• dum unu jaro / dum unu jaron is a different issue and usually less direct here
• por unu jaro would not be the most natural equivalent in this structure

With verbs involving duration, Esperanto very often prefers the bare time expression with -n:

• La kunveno daŭris du horojn.
• La pasporto validos dek jarojn.

So unu jaron / dek jarojn is exactly what you would expect.

Validos is the future of validi = to be valid.

• validas = is valid
• validis = was valid
• validos = will be valid

The sentence is talking about the period for which the passport will be valid, so the future tense is used.

Not necessarily.

A learner often first meets ĉu as a yes/no-question marker:

• Ĉu vi komprenas? = Do you understand?

But in ĉu ... ĉu ..., it works as a paired conjunction meaning whether ... or.

So the whole sentence is not automatically a yes/no question just because it contains ĉu. The meaning depends on the structure:

• single ĉu before a clause → often a yes/no question
• ĉu ... ĉu ... → an alternative structure

Here it is the second use.

Because Esperanto often leaves out material that is easy to understand from context.

The full idea is something like:

• Ĉu la pasporto validos unu jaron, ĉu la pasporto validos dek jarojn...

But that would be unnecessarily repetitive. Instead, Esperanto puts the alternatives first and gives the verb once:

• Ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn, la pasporto validos.

You can think of it as:

• Whether for one year or for ten years, the passport will be valid.

This kind of ellipsis is normal.

The commas show that this opening part is a separate alternative phrase, set off before the main clause:

• Ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn,
• la pasporto validos.

They help the reader see the structure clearly.

Without commas, the sentence would be harder to parse quickly. The commas are especially useful because the sentence begins with a contrasted pair before the subject and verb appear.

Usually, in this pattern, Esperanto prefers ĉu ... ĉu ....

This is a fixed and common way to express whether ... or. Using aŭ would change the feel and would not match this structure as well.

Compare:

• ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn = whether one year or ten years
• unu jaron aŭ dek jarojn = one year or ten years

The second version is just a plain or phrase. The first version has the specific whether ... or ... flavor.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, especially because endings show the grammar clearly.

For example, you could also imagine:

• La pasporto validos ĉu unu jaron, ĉu dek jarojn.

That would still be understandable. But the given order puts the alternatives first, which emphasizes the contrast:

• whether one year or ten years

So the fronted phrase gives the sentence a particular focus.

Yes. Validi means to be valid.

So:

• La pasporto validas. = The passport is valid.
• La pasporto validos dek jarojn. = The passport will be valid for ten years.

If an English speaker sees validi, it is important not to confuse it with English validate. Esperanto validigi would be closer to make valid / validate.

So here validos simply describes the passport’s state of validity.