Passport expiring advice needed

[isthismylifenow]

I am not in the UK, and have a family member due to visit from the UK. They have dual nationality and will use both passports for the trip.

We have had a bit of disagreement on the validity of their UK passport, so could someone who is the know, please confirm if I am correct or not.

I think that they will need a new passport to travel on, but they believe they don't. I do know that they need 6 months leeway on their passport and not the 3 month, that is not what is in dispute.

They are leaving the UK on 1 March, for 6 weeks. Returning mid April.

Their passport dates are as follows:
Expiry : 04 Jan 2026
Issued - 04 June 2015

In my mind this means that the passport is now 10 years old on 04 June 2025, and the 6 month applies to this date and not the expiry date. They say that they will be fine as long as they are back by 04 August 2025, but I am not sure that is the case.

And if they need to apply now for a new one, is there sufficient time before leaving on 1 March?

You are correct. The passport has expired.

When you say they “will use both passports for the trip” do you mean that they will enter where you are on the non-UK passport, but try to re-enter the UK on the UK passport? Or some other combination?

If they have a valid other passport this point may be moot. Or would they need a visa when travelling solely on the second passport?

It depends- where are they going to? If the EU then the 10 year rule applies, but it doesnt apply in all countries- some still recognise the extra months.

They used to add remaining months from the old passport on, which is why the passport was issued for 10y6m. However, they changed the rules and passports are now only valid for 10y, so they can't use it after June (or effectively 6m before june)

It depends on the country- can still use them for the US or Australia for example. Cannot use them within the EU, but I think that's all.

What @LaPalmaLlama said.

If they're travelling to an EU country then their passport will expire on 4 June 2025 as it will then be 10 years old. They therefore don't have the requisite 6 months left on their passport when they return mid April.

If they're travelling to a non EU country they need to check the specific requirements of the country they're travelling to but the 10 year rule doesn't apply to non EU countries.

Yes, exactly this. They will leave UK on the UK passport, enter SA on an SA passport, and then vice versa for the return.

As otherwise on a single passport, they would need to show a visa. But they don't need one due to being a dual national.

Ah thank you. and @LaPalmaLlama

Yes it is outside of the EU, which would mean that they are then correct.

Phew, it has been a stressful day and now I have panicked them also.

But rather safe than sorry.

I thought it was not recommended to swap passports during a trip. But not sure. If they are not using the UK passport to do anything other than return to UK they are fine.
There's no border control on departures from UK just airline checks. They need to present the SA passport for these not the UK one as otherwise they'll be wrong on the advanced pax info

Some posters are giving incorrect information.

The ten year rule and the 3 month rule are independent.

Look on the foreign office website. Taking Germany as an example of an EU country, the rules are:

Germany follows Schengen area rules. Your passport must:

• have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive – if you renewed your passport before 1 October 2018, it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago
• have an ‘expiry date’ at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/germany/entry-requirements

It is valid until June 2025 for entry - they don't need any time before this because the 3 months remaining test applies to the actual expiry date not the 10 year anniversary, but for entry into the EU, it's a moot point unless they enter before 4 June. But if they did, they don't need to leave until early October.

But now I see it's not the EU, so still look at the Foreign office, where the actual rules are published. Plus possibly the SA Embassy or whoever provides advice on entering the country.

All their passports are fine. They are using the passport of their nationality to enter each country. None of the rules about passport expirations will apply in that case. They can re-enter the UK on the date the passport expires and it will be fine.

The whole 10 year thing is entry into the Schengen zone only.

You can travel into the UK on your UK passport until the day it expires.

Thank you all.

I was very stressed for a while there.

You're right, the passport can't be over 10 years old
She needs a new one before travelling

This is only the case if flying to the EU.

Also, tbh even if their UK passport isn't valid for outbound travel, they can just fly out on their RSA passport as you dont get "stamped out" of the UK- there's no outbound passport control. They can still come back in on their UK passport using the extra months.

Airlines have a system called TIMATIC that they use to check that their passengers are entitled to enter the country they are flying to. If they don’t check this and the person ends up being denied entry and deported at the other end, they can get a huge fine.

So the airline needs to know that your relative has the right to enter SA. As long as the SA passport is valid, they have that right, all good.

On the way back, the airline needs to know that the person has the right to enter the UK. As far as I know, the UK will allow anyone to enter if they have a valid British passport. The UK itself isn’t bothered about having 6 months left on the passport etc etc because once in the UK the UK national has the right to stay as long as they like.

The reason that other countries specify things like “must have 3 months/6 months left before expiry” is that they don’t want to end up in a situation where a person who is not a national of their country is stuck there without a valid passport to return to the UK. So they impose whatever rules they want and err on the side of caution. The rules of each country must be checked individually (except for the EU which has made its rules as a bloc).

It’s really interesting that so many people have heard about the new rules imposed by the EU and have somehow extrapolated that in their minds to be some sort of change to the actual validity of the UK passport. If you think it through, it’s not in any way logical that the action or opinion of a foreign country could have any effect whatsoever on the validity of a UK passport for the purpose of entering the UK.

Dual national travelling with both UK passports.
I was given very stern talks by border agents when I got it wrong at first.
Airline to SA - your FM will give SA passport. Pass UK border on UK passport, pass SA border with SA passport.
And then back they just turn it around. Airlines can change passports if you call them. Well some do. I had go do it when renewing etc.
I always thought airlines and border shared data🤷apparent no so that's how sual nationals should do it.
Easy peasy (now I was angrily told😂)

Just to ad as pps correctly said, as long as these are valid, no problemo

It depends I think, having just done a bit of googling.

If it’s US for example, you have to enter and leave on your US passport. You can enter the uk on your us passport, but you would also need to show your right to remain- so your uk passport.

i have Irish and uk- as Irish citizens also have right to remain in the uk I would only need one passport to travel on.

i believe she can travel on her in date passport, and show an expired uk passport as evidence of right to remain, but not totally sure.

so it depends on the passports, where she’s travelling, plus any visas etc…

Sorry missed the RSA update while typing!