Passport expired - travelling Saturday

[inarightstatetonight]

Sorry, posting here for traffic. NC as have a number of people now know about this situation.

Can anyone advise?

My dc's passport expired last year - I thought it was this year and it was only when I was checking in online with airline that I realised.

We're planning to travel to Southern Ireland with Ryanair on Saturday. It seems that it's not possible to renew a child's passport in a day and that Ryanair insists on passports for all travellers.

A few people have told me that they've renewed child passports in recent years at a premium, one day appointment, but everything i've read online suggests that this isn't possible.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I'll call the passport office first thing, but I'm not holding out much hope.

TIA

[AyMamita]

Why are people saying you don't need a passport for Ireland? It's a different country! You don't need one for northern Ireland but you do need one for Eire just like you would for France or Germany.

[neepsandtatties]

There is a common travel area AyMamita

www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_abroad/freedom_of_movement_within_the_eu/common_travel_area_between_ireland_and_the_uk.html

[ginmakesitallok]

No you don't AyMamita. There's no passport control between n Ireland and Ireland.

[ginmakesitallok]

Agree with other posters that the easiest answer would be to fly to Belfast and drive/train to Dublin. Children don't need id for domestic Ryan air flights.

[AyMamita]

Wow. Every day's a school day!

[TranmereRover]

aer lingus accept any photo id for ireland so if you are changing flights, you can still go to dublin

[inarightstatetonight]

Thanks all. In case this information helps anyone else, all adults need a valid passport on all Ryanair flights, including domestic.

Children can fly with a birth certificate on domestic flights, but need a valid passport for Southern Ireland with Ryanair at least.

Children can travel on ferries between UK and Ireland with birth certificate.

In the UK, it's possible to get a adult renewal passport in a day, but not a child's. No guarantee of anything less than a week.

I've booked a ferry, so am relieved that I'm not having to tell my dc that we can't go, although this holiday has worked out to be expensive.

You can 'change flights' with Ryanair but after all the fees and charges, it works out more expensive than buying new ones anyway.

Expensive mistake. Don't do it!

[Songlark]

Glad it's worked out for you, what a nightmare. Remember to take your passport for the ferry though. I travel regular, sometimes they ask for it, sometimes they don't bother. Best to be on the safe side though. Hope you enjoy Ireland.

[inarightstatetonight]

Gosh, yes the rest of us will definitely have our passports!

[Eatsleepwork]

How annoying and expensive for you. I know you won't get a refund but if you don't take the flight you can request to have the airport passenger duty repaid. I had to do this earlier this year as ds became ill and I couldn't get on my easyjey flight- we each got £13 refunded, which was actually a fair chunk of the flight cost!

[Drinkstoomuchcoffee]

Although the passport office won't guarantee to deliver a child passport in less than seven days even when using the fast track service, in practice the turn around time lately has been around three days. You go with the correct documents and acceptable photos, they do the checks and issue the passport the same or the following day and the passport is delivered by courier the day after that.

[inarightstatetonight]

Thanks. Last time I tried to have the passenger duty repaid, Ryanair informed me that the administrative charges were higher than the amount due, so I'm not holding out much hope.

Three days would be cutting it too fine, tbh. Ferries were selling out and I expect the few days before the Whitson half term break is BUSY in the fast track service as I'm sure that I'm not the only one!

The next online appointments for adults were Friday when I looked last night.

[JessieMcJessie]

Glad you found a solution. But try not to refer to the Republic of Ireland as "Southern Ireland" when you are there- won't endear you to the locals!

[BitOutOfPractice]

I have found out, to my cost, only today, that it is not possible to get a renewal for a CHILD's passport in a day. Over 16, no problem, children, no. Absolutely no idea why

[Floggingmolly]

You don't need a passport to travel to Ireland from the UK; but you do need photo ID. Not so easy for a child?

[sherbetpips]

yep no one day service for children - its to stop children in custody disputes being spirited away.....
We did this last year during the busiest period, luckily noticed 4 weeks before at on-line check in. got the passport 2 days before we flew.

[sparechange]

Can you change the flight to Northern Ireland and drive south?

[NorahM]

If it makes you feel any better, we realized DS' passport was expired while we tried a to check in at the airport for our flight to the US a few years ago. Luckily, DS' passport is a US passport, and they let him travel "to his own country" with an expired passport so we could apply for a new one there. Unfortunately, that took a few days out of our short two week break, but can't complain as it was our stupid fault.

Good luck. I hope you sort it out.

[ChristianGreyIsAJackass]

This happened to me last year, 24 hr premium service was not available for DS, they managed to do it in 5 days. I had to drive to the passport office hours before travel and there was no guarantee it would be ready, i had to keep ringing and pestering. It was only luck that meant it came back in five days.

I was sobbing in the passport office like a total wally!

I hope you get it sorted OP but unless things have changed since a year ago yesterday you may struggle :(

[Roomba]

This happened to us last year - well, it was so that we could attend a family funeral abroad, not a holiday, and it was a very unexpected and tragic accident so no way of knowing in advance we'd need the passport sorting out.

I had to drive 250 miles to the Durham office to get a same day appointment for DS' passport renewal as nowhere else had an appointment free within a week except Enniskillen (which would need a passport to get to). We were seen very quickly, but due to the time of the appointment, the forms were all processed and sorted about five minutes after the 'cut off' point for same day issue. We had to go home and wait for it to be delivered by courier instead.

We were told it would be delivered within 24 hours. The flight was four days later, so I wasn't too panicked as we had plenty of time. I kept checking the status online - the passport was only processed after 3 days and many, many phone calls! It was finally delivered two hours after our flight left... I was gutted that we had to miss the funeral, but also we lost all the money on the flights. I couldn't go without DS as I am a single parent who was BF exclusively so no one could look after him even if they wanted to (no one could anyway).

I will always make sure all of our passports have a minimum of 6m left on them just on case forevermore. What a waste of time and money that was, as well as being very upsetting (v close relative who died, and a few of my family were very pissed off that I didn't attend and we fell out big time over it).

Hope you can get sorted asap, OP x

[badtime]

I think the reason people have been saying 'southern Ireland' on this thread has been to distinguish the country 'Ireland' from 'Northern Ireland' and the geographical 'Ireland' which includes them both.

[badtime]

The country isn't called the 'Republic of Ireland' either, and some people don't like that either.

[madreloco]

I think the reason people have been saying 'southern Ireland' on this thread has been to distinguish the country 'Ireland' from 'Northern Ireland' and the geographical 'Ireland' which includes them both.

Well they shouldnt! Look at a map, is Donegal in "southern Ireland" for example?
There is Northern Ireland, part of the UK, and Ireland, which is a separate country. It isn't difficult, no-one is confused, and if you're going to visit a country you can at least name it correctly.

[badtime]

But I am from County Antrim, which is in Ireland but not in Ireland. I find that a bit confusing.

[Twirlwirlywoo]

I could be wrong but I thought they had brought in a law that insists on passports for ALL flights - even internal ones,in case the flight gets urgently diverted somewhere else.

I would call Ryan air and speak to someone. If by some miracle they give you clearance to fly - take their full name, date and time of phone call and the number you dialled and make sure you take it with you to the airport.

Good luck.