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AIBU?

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Original poster

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
Worried1305 · 15/02/2022 15:40

Not relevant to the OP, but back in 2010 my entire family lost our passports (ALL of them - they were all in the same bag) while on holiday in France. Cue HUGE panic.

What happened? We travelled home without them - no dramas, just a short meeting at the ferry terminal to explain what had happened, and a few forms to fill in (plus showing driving licenses / other ID we happened to have with us). It was a very expensive mistake (had to renew them all!) but otherwise it was fine.

I dread to think what it would be like if it happened now, post-Brexit…

tkwal · 15/02/2022 15:41

Travel agent and company website both pointed this out when we booked a break for November last year. You would also have had to find out about covid passport and vaccination policy for minors. If you booked the trip yourself you really have no excuse. If someone else booked it , they should have let you know

Whammyyammy · 15/02/2022 15:43

@Toanewstart23

And let me guess

“Oh he will have a whale of a time with his best friend, would MUCH prefer to go there rather than a big family foreign holiday.”

🤣🤣🤣
SockFluffInTheBath · 15/02/2022 15:54

Oops. Good luck OP Smile

VanGoghsDog · 15/02/2022 15:55

@TheChronicalTales

Hi OP. This happened to me and DP and he was allowed to board- he had two months left on his passport. We decided to risk it and didn’t mention it and there was only a quick glance at his passport, no problem! I know what the legal requirements are but they literally glanced for around half a second.

However, this was pre covid. Not sure how it will be with presumably much tighter restrictions and checking as they’ll be checking covid vaccination status too? This was also pre brexit to a European country.

This was also pre brexit to a European country.

🤦🏻‍♀️

MayMorris · 15/02/2022 15:58

There’s no way some of you go and DS gets left behind. That’s bloody awful to even consider it.
Cancel. It’s an expensive and upsetting mistake for all of you, don’t even let him know it was his passport if possible, that was cause.
Just say something has come up and we need to cancel.

MrsArchchancellorRidcully · 15/02/2022 15:59

Similar happened to us and DH spent almost the whole day in Liverpool and got an emergency new passport for DS. Cost us a bloody fortune and luckily DH is self employed so it's worth looking into.

Partyintheusa2012 · 15/02/2022 16:00

Surely in 2022 the computer system will flag the issue, even if the member of staff doesn't actually notice.

Assume the passport office will take the maximum time they say.

I would either move the holiday or keep refreshing and hope for an appointment to come up asap x

Bostromani · 15/02/2022 16:04

Not exactly the same situation, but we are traveling in May and have found that both mine and my child's passport have expired.

Hopefully we can get them renewed fairly quickly.

Always a good thing to check passport issues well in advance.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 15/02/2022 16:04

@Toanewstart23

I love it when a poster wades in with….

Here’s the definitive facts on the issue

And then they get it wrong Grin

@RobotValkyrie

Agreed, especially when it starts with a sneering A few actual facts for the factually challenged: and is then a pile of wank.
AnEpisodeOfEastenders · 15/02/2022 16:12

@Worried1305

Not relevant to the OP, but back in 2010 my entire family lost our passports (ALL of them - they were all in the same bag) while on holiday in France. Cue HUGE panic.

What happened? We travelled home without them - no dramas, just a short meeting at the ferry terminal to explain what had happened, and a few forms to fill in (plus showing driving licenses / other ID we happened to have with us). It was a very expensive mistake (had to renew them all!) but otherwise it was fine.

I dread to think what it would be like if it happened now, post-Brexit…

You'd probably need to do something similar and keep the UK embassy of the host country involved in discussions so they can provide assistance. People lost passports pre-Brexit and will continue to post-Brexit. And passports expired pre-Brexit in the same way they do post-Brexit. The point people are making is Brexit had nothing to do with the expiry date on the passport.
TyrannosaurusRegina · 15/02/2022 16:12

@harriethoyle

What you don't do *@TyrannosaurusRegina* is snap at people not to post again on your thread and tell them you can read, when they appear genuinely to be trying to help. However stressed op is by her mistake I suspect that's the point she lost a lot of sympathy and was just unnecessarily rude.
Trying to help? They were trying to hinder more than anything else, just to get their tuppenceworth in. How about you start a thread, where you're trying to get a simple question answered and people continously derail it with completely pointless input? I think you'd end up snapping.
HerbertChops · 15/02/2022 16:14

My dh was in this situation, only realised the day before as BA wouldn’t allow him to check in online. They’d let him buy the ticket a few weeks before with the same passport, so annoying. We had to cancel and rebook for a few weeks later. Your ds won’t be able to travel. Passport office stopped doing emergency face to face appointments at the beginning of the pandemic.

Branleuse · 15/02/2022 16:18

id see if you can move the flights a couple of weeks or to the april holiday

JoanOgden · 15/02/2022 16:20

Happened to friends of mins recently - they hadn't checked their son's passport until q week before they were due to go on holiday. They spent 48 hours refreshing the passport application website, got a face to face appointment for the next day, then the passport arrived 3 days later, just in time.

VikingsandDragons · 15/02/2022 16:22

Keep refreshing the appointments every few minutes, they come up really often. We had a similar situation last year, and initially we were waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, but 2 hours of hitting refresh we had one the next day, even if it was 3 hours away (and then the always reliable never had an issue before car broke down half way and we missed it anyway!)

ENoeuf · 15/02/2022 16:30

You can apply for an emergency travel document if you lose a passport abroad. I imagine similar to pre Brexit.

www.gov.uk/emergency-travel-document/how-to-apply

Lesperance · 15/02/2022 16:36

@Worried1305

Not relevant to the OP, but back in 2010 my entire family lost our passports (ALL of them - they were all in the same bag) while on holiday in France. Cue HUGE panic.

What happened? We travelled home without them - no dramas, just a short meeting at the ferry terminal to explain what had happened, and a few forms to fill in (plus showing driving licenses / other ID we happened to have with us). It was a very expensive mistake (had to renew them all!) but otherwise it was fine.

I dread to think what it would be like if it happened now, post-Brexit…

It'd be similar. There's a massive difference between trying to exit the foreign country you are staying in to return to your home country and trying to get into a foreign country without the correct paperwork.
Twentypast · 15/02/2022 16:41

@Worried1305

Not relevant to the OP, but back in 2010 my entire family lost our passports (ALL of them - they were all in the same bag) while on holiday in France. Cue HUGE panic.

What happened? We travelled home without them - no dramas, just a short meeting at the ferry terminal to explain what had happened, and a few forms to fill in (plus showing driving licenses / other ID we happened to have with us). It was a very expensive mistake (had to renew them all!) but otherwise it was fine.

I dread to think what it would be like if it happened now, post-Brexit…

Exactly the same. You wouldn't be refused entry to the UK as British citizens.
Ohmygodareyouserious · 15/02/2022 16:42

You don't see border control on departure in this country but the airline will refuse your boarding as if they don't not only will you get turned away by the Spanish border force but the airline will get fined for allowing you to fly thus creating unnecessary paperwork for the Spanish authorities. I'm really sorry for your predicament , I'm sure your all gutted xxx

Topseyt · 15/02/2022 16:48

@Ohmygodareyouserious

You don't see border control on departure in this country but the airline will refuse your boarding as if they don't not only will you get turned away by the Spanish border force but the airline will get fined for allowing you to fly thus creating unnecessary paperwork for the Spanish authorities. I'm really sorry for your predicament , I'm sure your all gutted xxx
Not at border control, but they are usually given a basic check at the check in desk for those of us who are checking in hold baggage.
StyxBankDweller · 15/02/2022 16:55

@labyrinthlaziness

Just to clear a few things up:
  • Yes there was always a need to check passports were valid, pre-Brexit
  • Yes Brexit has made the passport situation more annoying as you have to renew earlier
  • Overall Brexit is a pile of shit that has no discernible benefits (as evidenced by JRM desperately asking Sun readers for ideas) and we are entitled to moan about it for the rest of eternity because the people who lied about it in the referendum campaign made our lives worse in a wide variety of ways, some small and some large.
Yes! JRM said a couple of years ago we wouldn't see any brexit benefits for 50 years. That's me dead, my son and daughter elderly and my grandchildren past their youth. And the benefits? Living in a tax haven for the rich with no rights left. Nah. Not really very good is it. A plague on all the brexitliars' houses.

OP, it sucks, hope you can reschedule without massive inconvenience and cost.

whenthedoveslie · 15/02/2022 16:56

OP, Borders and Immigration aren't Tesco. You won't be able to wing it and pass through.

I know you are against rude replies, but did you think posting here would change the fact that you simply won't be able to fly with your son on his current PP.

Seriously, they don't call it British exceptionalism for nothing.

Fluffyslippersohyes · 15/02/2022 16:59

To be fair, my boss went from the UK to the Republic of Ireland without his passport about 20ish years ago (before the attack on the World Trade Centre). It was convoluted in the he had various documents proving his ID ( driving licence, marriage licence etc), and what got him through the desk was his membership card for the local zoo as it had his photo on it (didn't have a photocard driving licence). Things were a lot more lax then.

Good luck OP, I know it's disappointing. I think a lot of people are being caught out with this.

AchillesPoirot · 15/02/2022 17:00

@Fluffyslippersohyes

To be fair, my boss went from the UK to the Republic of Ireland without his passport about 20ish years ago (before the attack on the World Trade Centre). It was convoluted in the he had various documents proving his ID ( driving licence, marriage licence etc), and what got him through the desk was his membership card for the local zoo as it had his photo on it (didn't have a photocard driving licence). Things were a lot more lax then.

Good luck OP, I know it's disappointing. I think a lot of people are being caught out with this.

Ireland is in the common travel area. You don’t need a passport. And you never did.