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.

[Warmduscher]

My bigger fear is he gets a taste for this and won't come with us on our next family holiday.

I wouldn’t blame him for feeling like this after how you’ve treated him.

[OnTheBoardwalk]

If it was my passport that expired I would not want to prevent the rest of the family from travelling and would wave them off. I would quite enjoy being alone with myself for one week but that is just me

But it’s not you. It’s your 15 year old son and it’s your responsibility to make sure he has what he needs as a child

[blueshoes]

Couch surfing is an expression. I don't believe he will actually be sleeping on a sofa. I will contact each set of parents to arrange, with back up from family (which ds does not want to stay with). He was planning to go to the gym everyday on holiday and we chose a hotel with a gym for that reason. He will instead go to his usual gym everyday and probably play xbox with his friends for the rest of the time. Xbox is something he does every staycation holiday with us as well. We bring all his xbox kit with us.

He will miss out on nice Crete meals, that's true. I suspect he won't miss the Greek salads at all.

[Kendodd]

THTS HAS FUCKALL TO DO WITH BREXIT!

Yet another near hysterical cry of 'it's not Brexit' . We're hearing this almost daily now.
Before Brexit as EU citizens, traveling to EU countries, we didn't need all this slack on our passports, in fact we didn't even need a passport, just a national ID card (if you're country issued one, ours doesn't) would do.

[Chocs44]

This happened to my daughter's boyfriend - he had less than two weeks left on his passport when he luckily checked a few days before they left for Croatia! He went in person to the passport office in Newport and collected a new one. It cost £170 but at least they managed to still go away!

[CourgetteGlutTony]

THTS HAS FUCKALL TO DO WITH BREXIT!

Bet you voted REMAIN. The most crushingly ludicrous and ill informed comments come from Remainers.

Every.

Single.

TIME.

It has everything to do with Brexit. When we were in the EU, a passport just had to be valid on the day you returned to the UK from another EU country.
Now we are not in the EU, there must be a minimum of 3 months validity (or 6 months in some cases)

[JellyTotCat]

Good luck. I'm sure you're not the first person to make this mistake and won't be the last. We all mess up sometimes.

[Warmduscher]

@blueshoes

Couch surfing is an expression. I don't believe he will actually be sleeping on a sofa. I will contact each set of parents to arrange, with back up from family (which ds does not want to stay with). He was planning to go to the gym everyday on holiday and we chose a hotel with a gym for that reason. He will instead go to his usual gym everyday and probably play xbox with his friends for the rest of the time. Xbox is something he does every staycation holiday with us as well. We bring all his xbox kit with us.

He will miss out on nice Crete meals, that's true. I suspect he won't miss the Greek salads at all.

You sound weirdly disconnected from him in the way you talk about him.

And I’m sure I’m not the only one who isn’t taken in by your insistence that he’ll have just as good a time sleeping on people’s sofas as he would on holiday in Crete.

[Lightisnotwhite]

I seriously doubt a 15 year old only child is going to love the idea of being on holiday with their parents
Mine grudgingly bought a mate along once and then said no to any more holidays with us at about 15.

Is not uncommon to forget about passport dates. It’s even worse now tgat no ones been anywhere. Goodness knows why peopke are being so arsey.

[Inastatus]

My 15 year old DS would be horrified if this happened to him and I certainly would not leave him behind in these circs. You state that you and your DH are looking forward to your hols, what about your DS,? Hasn’t he mentioned the hols at all? He might be putting on a brave face but I doubt he’s really looking forward to sofa surfing whilst you swan off on the first foreign holiday since covid.

[Branleuse]

If you go to the nearest passport office even without an appointment you can often be seen. We had to drive a couple of hours to do this one year

[GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing]

I don’t see why it matters if it’s the fault of Brexit or not

[Whstdoyouthink]

Wow shitty on so many levels. Get an appointment even if your travelling miles for it.

[Clymene]

@LowlandLucky

Clymene Turkey is not part of the E.U

I am aware

[blueshoes]

jellytot appreciate the sympathy.

Warm I guess I am not by nature a pearl clutcher so I sound somewhat disconnected. That must be where my son gets it from. Dh is the same. We just a practical 'get on with it' type of family.

[Warmduscher]

@Lightisnotwhite

I seriously doubt a 15 year old only child is going to love the idea of being on holiday with their parents
Mine grudgingly bought a mate along once and then said no to any more holidays with us at about 15.

Is not uncommon to forget about passport dates. It’s even worse now tgat no ones been anywhere. Goodness knows why peopke are being so arsey.

If the OP’s DS was like yours and didn’t want to go on holiday with his parents, you have to wonder why she included him in the holiday in the first place.

[Gnr24]

Could you not get the 1 week fast track and ds can follow you a couple of days later , better than not going at all.

[Warmduscher]

@blueshoes

jellytot appreciate the sympathy.

Warm I guess I am not by nature a pearl clutcher so I sound somewhat disconnected. That must be where my son gets it from. Dh is the same. We just a practical 'get on with it' type of family.

Not so practical and “get on with it” that you remembered to renew his passport though.

[blueshoes]

@Branleuse

If you go to the nearest passport office even without an appointment you can often be seen. We had to drive a couple of hours to do this one year

Will try that first thing on Monday morning. Our passport office is just a train ride away. Worst thing that could happen is they turn us away.

[simitra]

I spent my first holiday alone at 16 back in the 1960s as my parents were going to Wales for 2 weeks on a caravan park. That kind of holiday no longer held any attraction for me and I was also working. I told my parents I couldnt get the time off work but I never asked!

I really enjoyed the two weeks of freedom and my ability to do what I wanted - within reason. No I didnt go mad with parties as I knew the NDN would be bound to snitch on me. It was that two weeks which made me realise how much I enjoyed my own company.

[Slacktacular]

Just renewed mine using the online application rather than in person, and was all done in 9 days.

[GiltEdges]

@Notimeforaname

You pay for an emergency passport?

He's 15. A child.

The passport renewal is the parents responsibility. Pretty shitty to fuck that up and then leave him at home for an adults mistake.

Completely agree. I can't actually believe your first thought as a parent is to leave him behind!

[RisingSunn]

In this situation I would get down to the passport office. If that failed, I would be seeing what could be rescheduled for the whole family.

[FuckingFabulous]

@blueshoes

jellytot appreciate the sympathy.

Warm I guess I am not by nature a pearl clutcher so I sound somewhat disconnected. That must be where my son gets it from. Dh is the same. We just a practical 'get on with it' type of family.

And I'm sure your son will be "just getting on with" a fairly distant relationship from his parents as soon as he's able.

[blueshoes]

If the OP’s DS was like yours and didn’t want to go on holiday with his parents, you have to wonder why she included him in the holiday in the first place.

We would include our dcs on holiday. We have so few holidays, both dh and I working ft, all our holidays are with dcs. Plus both will be in university soon so these are the final days of holidays with them.

It is devastating for this to happen. We did mess up.