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Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!

668 replies

olympicsrock · 15/02/2022 10:39

Help!!!
Just discovered that my 10 year old son’s passport only has 2 months left on it. We have flights booked to go to Spain on Saturday. .

Has anyone travelled to Spain on this situation recently? What happened?? Were you refused permission to board the plane?
I have phoned the passport office . There is absolutely no way to get a passport for him in the next 10 days as need to do face to face for child renewal , no appointments til next week abs then a week to deliver by post.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
red30505 · 15/02/2022 23:06

Can you travel to another passport office this week?
Do any have appts?

My dds first passport came in 4 days in January so may come early.

JackieWeaversLaptop · 15/02/2022 22:56

@olympicsrock

Online premium is adults only Sammy’s quiz and Triffid - please don’t comment further. I can read. I understand the rules. I am wondering if anyone has actually been in this situation and what happened .
Sorry this is happening to you OP - it sounds really frustrating. Is there any way you could reschedule your flights?

Also, why would you like to know so much about what’s happened to others, especially if you already understand the rules? As other posters have mentioned, the rules are pretty stringent and it probably won’t be helpful for you to rely on another poster’s experience in this scenario.

EishetChayil · 15/02/2022 22:52

You've been incredibly rude to people who are just trying to help, OP.

It's your own mistake for not checking the passport.

Stravaig · 15/02/2022 22:39

Just double-checked mine. One is long-since expired and tangled in international beaurocracy. The UK one has 10 years 9 months between issue and expiry dates, which I hadn't noticed. My brain had logged 10 years from the issue date as the expiry, which is nice and safe; but as time runs down I can easily imagine focusing on the official expiry date and thus falling foul of the 10 year rule. So thank you to those who've hightlighted it here. Check, folks!

I so hope it's my last UK passport ...

WombatChocolate · 15/02/2022 22:26

Given Brexit has happened, bringing a number of changes in this kind of area, you could reasonably be expected to check your passports complied with CURRENT requirements, SOONER than a week before.

Yes, Brexit has changed the duration required for this particular destination (and I am not a supporter of Brexit) BUT this isn’t about whether this problem arising is due to Brexit or the Op.

When you plan to travel abroad, a basic admin thing is to check the passport dates for all the family members travelling…..usually at the time of booking, or in good time to act if one needs renewing. This was the case before Brexit and now. It is even more the case given Brexit has brought in changes and due to Covid many of us haven’t been abroad since Brexit, so need to properly families ourselves with the new current requirements.

The fact is, Op didn’t do that.

The fact is, she asked for advice and when people reported facts about the point she would be turned away, she was rude and told them not to comment further on the thread….when once it’s been opened, is open to everyone. She asked them not to state what she could read herself……but of course if she could read it herself, why would you need a thread anyway. And this was after numerous people had to,d her there would be NO reports of people who had got away with it, which is what she really wanted to hear. The reality wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

Most people would be a bit sympathetic to the situation Op found herself in. An admin failure can happen to any of us. When it does, we can feel disappointed but have to accept responsibility too. Where OP lost much of the sympathy she probably would have had, was in her rudeness to posters who spent their time replying to the question she asked, and also in never really being willing to accept any responsibility for what had happened.

Yes, we all get that the situation was stressful. None of us would like to find ourselves in the situation, and it happens to lots of people, because basic failures of admin happen all the time. Op hadn’t committed a terrible crime but a failure of organisation and was hoping to wing it and get through and that the rules might be just a bit flexible….wasn’t prepared to accept that this isn’t the case when several people had explained it, but kept hoping longer, that somehow, those who said they weren’t flexible would be wrong, or still she could squeeze her way through. Stressed doesn’t mean you can be rude. Appreciating and understanding when you’ve been rude, or made a mistake is a basic expectation we can have of adults.

So how did Op come across? A bit disorganised not to have checked….no-one really minds that…we can all imagine it happening to us too. But rude and arrogant is what people didn’t like in the early part of this thread. Brexit clearly played a role in this, in terms of it determining a specific length of time needed for this particular location , that the passport would have got them into pre-Covid, but given as others mentioned, the fact OP hadn’t checked the passports means it could have easily fully expired anyway, or that a failure to check passports or current requirements given all the changes that have about due to Covid, means allowing this to happen was even more daft. Not having a passport a week before the holiday lies at the Op’s feet, not Brexits. All the other people getting on that plane next week will have lived through Covid too and no doubt many of them will have had to check their passports and renew them.

OP unfortunately came across as the kind of person you meet in real life who has made a basic error, but rather than acknowledging their part in it, arrogantly is sure there must be a way for them to get what they want and surely the rules can’t apply to them, and surely there must be a way to sneak through. And at the same time as someone who dismisses anyone who speaks reason (often in a kind way) and is read shouts louder ‘tell me the way I can circumvent the rules…I cannot believe it’s not possible’. People generally don’t like these characteristics. But then I guess people with such characteristics are rarely going to have the self awareness to spot them, and if they do, won’t have the humility to acknowledge them, much less to apologise to those they’ve been rude to…because they always feel justified in their own behaviour.

Anyway, regardless of all that…I hope OP that you do get your passports or postpone your holiday and can all go. I can see this is a horrible stressful position, regardless of the causes. And perhaps when you’re lying on a beach or going onto the plane at whichever point that is, you’ll remember the many pages of this thread and laugh, and instead of thinking of ‘the bitches on MN’ think instead about a thread, which perhaps made you think about a few things, even if you’d never admit them in real life or on MN itself.

Genuinely, I hope your family get their holiday and you all have a lovely time.

Watapalava · 15/02/2022 22:21

Regardless of brexit

The 10 yr/3 month/6 month limit has been publicised for a long time

Well over 18 months and again in media in January 2021 when the original extension ran out

There really is no excuse

Peregrina · 15/02/2022 22:17

Stop blaming 'poor life admin' for a Brexit consequence. The Passport is still in date, and would still be fine to travel to Spain with if it was Irish or French or Dutch etc.

Eucalyptusbee · 15/02/2022 22:16

I'd go plan E.

HelloFrostyMorning · 15/02/2022 22:13

@roselikeanyother

Spain is 3 months not 6! Where on earth are you getting your information from? Confused

www.spainvisa.eu/passport-requirements/

HelloFrostyMorning · 15/02/2022 22:12

@dementedpixie

Stop blaming Brexit for poor life admin.

dementedpixie · 15/02/2022 22:09

@HelloFrostyMorning

If you are making the ridiculously narrow point that but for the Brexit requirements, in this case the failure of op to bother to check passport expiry dates wouldn’t have been an issue, you are really really clutching at straws for reasons to blame Brexit for someone’s failure to bother checking passport dates.

This exactly!

@Alexandra2001

Were we still in the EU, this thread wouldn't exist.

Yes it would. The denial is bizarre. Brexit has absolutely NOTHING to do with the OP's issue. It's people not checking their passport expiry dates!

And as I said, this NEVER happens to people in real life. (Not to anyone I know anyway!)

The passport is in date Prior to brexit it could have been used to travel to Spain and now it can't be
HelloFrostyMorning · 15/02/2022 22:06

If you are making the ridiculously narrow point that but for the Brexit requirements, in this case the failure of op to bother to check passport expiry dates wouldn’t have been an issue, you are really really clutching at straws for reasons to blame Brexit for someone’s failure to bother checking passport dates.

This exactly!

@Alexandra2001

Were we still in the EU, this thread wouldn't exist.

Yes it would. The denial is bizarre. Brexit has absolutely NOTHING to do with the OP's issue. It's people not checking their passport expiry dates!

And as I said, this NEVER happens to people in real life. (Not to anyone I know anyway!)

Kitkat151 · 15/02/2022 22:06

@roselikeanyother

Definitely 6 months
Definately 3 months 🙄
dementedpixie · 15/02/2022 22:04

I dont know the expiry dates of our passports as we haven't been abroad for 2 years now. I know that they aren't all valid until the same date as there are 2 adult and 2 child passports.

Alexandra2001 · 15/02/2022 22:01

Because people generally know the expiry dates of their family member's passports. It's basic life admin. Like the expiration date of your driving licence, and your MOT due date etc; knowing when your passport runs out is basic life admin

Sure, if the OP said her DS passport had expired, then yes nowt to do with Brexit but many people don't know these new rules and don't appreciate what being a non EU country actually means - so my brexity in laws are aghast they have to pay a fortune to take their 2 dogs abroad..... that their plans to tour Europe have gone up in smoke and that one of their GC wont be able to study in europe as she planed.

dementedpixie · 15/02/2022 21:59

Every other official site says 3 months

Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!
roselikeanyother · 15/02/2022 21:55

Definitely 6 months

Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!
Peregrina · 15/02/2022 21:53

It's very poor form to blame Brexit when it's just poorly managed life-admin.

But this rule change is a Brexit one - no getting away from that. The passport hasn't expired and if it was an EU one then the son would be able to fly to Spain with no problem.

Where perhaps the life admin comes into it is that Brexit happened two years ago, and the Transition period ended one year ago, so people have had time to familiarise themselves with the new rules. Then with Covid restrictions not much travel was possible, otherwise this problem would have surfaced last year.

But that wasn't what was said.

User1isnotavailable · 15/02/2022 21:49

[quote Louisianagumbo]@User1isnotavailable
I waited at the Liverpool passport office and went back in to collect the passport later. It wasn't posted to me.

That's now only available for adults and not for children.[/quote]
I didn't realise it had changed. That's a shame.

Alexandra2001 · 15/02/2022 21:47

If you are making the ridiculously narrow point that but for the Brexit requirements, in this case the failure of op to bother to check passport expiry dates wouldn’t have been an issue, you are really really clutching at straws for reasons to blame Brexit for someone’s failure to bother checking passport dates

Its not a narrow point, many don't follow the news and believed Boris when he said "Nothing will change"
They also make a quick check, see its all in date and bingo! away we go, as we used to be able to do.
Were we still in the EU, this thread wouldn't exist.

I think we can all safely assume which way you voted - even if you come back and deny that lol.

blueshoes · 15/02/2022 21:45

Because people generally know the expiry dates of their family member's passports. It's basic life admin. Like the expiration date of your driving licence, and your MOT due date etc; knowing when your passport runs out is basic life admin.

I disagree knowing the expiry date of my passport, my dh's passport, my dcs' passports, dh and my driving licence is basic life admin. I agree that people should check passport expiry dates before booking airline tickets but I disagree that holding the dates in your head is 'basic life admin'.

I have lots going on in my life and I am not neurologically diverse to fixate on dates. I have a calendar which I enter reminders into which is how I organise myself and I consider myself pretty organised and juggling a lot of balls in a busy home with teenage dcs and ft work.

HelloFrostyMorning · 15/02/2022 21:45

@roselikeanyother

Spain is 6 months - a friends mother was denied boarding at the gate as she thought it was 3 months. She got an emergency passport and flew a few days later.
Spain is not 6 months.
dementedpixie · 15/02/2022 21:42

Says 3 months

Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!
roselikeanyother · 15/02/2022 21:40

Spain is 6 months - a friends mother was denied boarding at the gate as she thought it was 3 months. She got an emergency passport and flew a few days later.