Son's passport expiring - family hols in ruins

[blueshoes]

Dh and I were looking forward to our family holiday in Crete, Greece for the October half term. We watched the covid-19/PCR situation closely not realising that my 15 year old son's passport has less than 3 months. Just found out today. This is our first foreign holiday since covid struck.

The government website says that for entry to Greece, your passport must be valid for at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave Greece, or any other Schengen country.

We leave on 30 October and my son's passport expires just short of 3 months on 22 January 2022. It is too late to renew his passport as we are leaving in less than a week.

Ds cannot come with us, can he? We f_ked up.

Anybody recently travelled to Greece with Ryanair with less than 3 months left on their passport? Is it a bad idea to turn up and chance it or bite the bullet now and plan on the basis ds cannot go.

@BillieSpain

But isn't that a very different scenario? *@Twitchynose*. Weekend in UK and Aunt 5miles away and age for a week? Plus no pandemic.

Away for a weekend in the UK and Aunt locally - it was an Aunt I rarely saw and I suspect I may have been younger than that. My brother went to uni when I was 13 so I know it was definitely after that age. I was the most boring unlikely to do anything child though! The France trip, I was just 16 as it was the Easter before my GCSEs and my birthday is start of March. Admittedly, there wasn’t a pandemic at the time though!

ds and I are quite similar in personality. We can have big rows over his schoolwork and grades. He is perfectly capable of telling me what he thinks, which reassures me. I can also read him like a mother does. He is actually a relatively open book and happily tells us about his day and friends. That is why I know he will have a ball with his friends.

I appreciate I am justifying this to myself in my mind.

OP ignore the comments about you being a narcissist because you’re leaving your son behind! I can remember when I was 16, my parents asked me whether I’d prefer to stay at home or go away with them to which I replied stay at home! Don’t be guilt tripped by strangers online

You can not do same day passport for a child, it's only a week one, I'm afraid. Had similar situation in August. The passport office releases new appointments every day. Try logging in on Monday morning again. There are cancellations, don't despair, you still got time. Depending where you can travel in person to hand in application, try looking for availability in few passport offices.
We realised DC is running out of passport over the weekend, was not even 1 appointment available, but my DH randomly checked on Mon morning (just after 8) and found 1 available on Wednesday. DC's passport arrived on Saturday.
Good luck. Not everything is lost, yet!

redsquirrell you sound like a mature and responsible 15 year old and a great help to your mother then at a time of family stress.

@BillieSpain

She has, it is a role in addition to her main role in school. It is a boarding school so she seems fairly up on when children can travel into town solo, be left solo etc etc. Be released on weekends.

That will be school policies which has no bearing on what Is going on here.

I'm astonished at the number of posters who say they're appalled you might leave your son behind - he's 15 not 5! I imagine he might well enjoy a week with his mates more than a jaunt with mum and dad abroad. I wouldn't have thought twice about leaving him behind (unless he was desperately upset and didn't want you to go) it would have been my default response to the passport situation too.

How do people expect their kids to live independent lives at 18, at uni or whatever, if they treat them like toddlers at age 15? Maybe that's the answer, they don't, they want them to be babies til age 35.

OP, best wishes for a good outcome all round. I had to rush to London once to get a new passport in a day, it us quite common, they say. Are you ok about: "We can have big rows over his schoolwork and grades."? Sorry.

I would expect a 15 year old to have some responsibility for their own passport at that age too. Not to be reordering it or paying for it, but for being mindful that an end date might need to be checked.

@Abraxan

THTS HAS FUCKALL TO DO WITH BREXIT!

Prior to Brexit, we were part of the EU.
We did not need to have additional time in our passport to travel to other countries within the EU. It could run out the day after we landed back in the UK and all was fine.

In the case of this holiday, Brexit has made a difference as to whether the 15y can travel there or not,

You are the umpteenth poster to say Brexit does matter, even since it was explicitly pointed out in the thread that Turkey is not part of the EU.

Please can you explain what difference Brexit had made to our ability to travel to Turkey?

I assume the passport requirements for travelling to the USA, Bhurundi, Mongolia, (insert non-EU country of choice) are more or less the same now as they were ten years ago. And that since Turkey is not part of the EU now, and wasn't 10 years ago, that's true for it to.

For the first few posters I assumed it was because they didn't understand Turkey wasn't part of the EU.

I'm open to the idea that Turkey has some sort of special travel status for EU citizens that it doesn't grant to the UK, but no-one has explicitly claimed that is the case.

@Kendodd

A lot of what we are dealing with at the moment is due to Brexit. There is no denying.

Yes there is, there's loads of denying it, all over the thread.

I deny it too. Because not a single poster who says a problem traveling to Turkey is caused by Brexit has explained why this is true, given that Turkey is not in the EU.

There was a post on FB by a chap flying to Greece with Ryanair, and his wife was refused boarding because her passport said it expired next April but when checked by the Gov checker it actually expired in October.

Don't risk it. Get a new emergency passport for him.

@Ouchiehelpneeded

The online premium service is the one you want. You can get the passport on the day of your appointment.

Good luck!

Not for children passports. This service is for adults only.

@reallyscaredof

You can not do same day passport for a child, it's only a week one, I'm afraid. Had similar situation in August. The passport office releases new appointments every day. Try logging in on Monday morning again. There are cancellations, don't despair, you still got time. Depending where you can travel in person to hand in application, try looking for availability in few passport offices. We realised DC is running out of passport over the weekend, was not even 1 appointment available, but my DH randomly checked on Mon morning (just after 8) and found 1 available on Wednesday. DC's passport arrived on Saturday. Good luck. Not everything is lost, yet!

My inpromptu visit to the passport office with ds tomorrow is likely to end up with me turned away by the security guards at the door, but hey, worth a try.

The next appointment in London is 28 Oct. I will keep stalking the appointments page. All the other places like Belfast, Durham are too far away for ds and I to get to.

My friend recently drove to Liverpool to get a passport for their baby on that day.

Surprised it’s only 3 months, lots of countries require 6.

Express service. Costly but you can’t leave him at home.

Hope it works out.

You can travel in the UK with an ID card but not abroad.

If we had official ID cards, then we would have been able to travel to the EU with them. It was academic because we haven't had them since the wartime/post war ones were abolished.

Poor kid

As a DM of an only I'd be delighted to host his pal during the half term holidays. I do think though I'd worry for someone else's DS if they were moving every night, I'd prefer to have him for 2-3 nights for a bit more continuity.

To be fair, I think some posters are repeating the advice from the nspcc that a child under 16 should not be left alone overnight. However that’s not what the OP is doing - he is being left with other people

www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2019/parent-guide-home-alone2/

We did think about chancing it. But if either the airline (Ryanair, so not much hope of mercy) or Greece turned him away, the consequences are far more severe (because ds would be stranded) that if we went straight to plan B. I realise we sound heartless.

What do you mean by ds would be stranded ? Are you saying you’d still all board the plane anyway and leave him stranded at the airport?

This happened to me .. realised when checking in online .. I rang the airline and they (rightly or wrongly) told us to travel (passport expired during our trip) and go to the British Embassy while we were away and get an emergency passport … totally not ideal but it worked ..

@rookiemere

As a DM of an only I'd be delighted to host his pal during the half term holidays. I do think though I'd worry for someone else's DS if they were moving every night, I'd prefer to have him for 2-3 nights for a bit more continuity.

I’d happily host usually but wouldn’t in circumstances where it was because the parents wanted a holiday.

@Glintwithpersperation

Jesus Christ there are fucking neurotic people on here. Absolute loons. I think that when you have 3 teen / adult children, you realise that your children are human beings capable of independent thought. Some of the comments are insane and I bet these helicopter parents gripped by anxiety are the sort of people who end up having children desperate to break the control, go no contact or completely off the rails with massive drug problems.

Have a great holiday OP and 🤞🤞🤞 for tomorrow.

I have teenagers thanks