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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
squishyegg · 15/02/2022 17:01

I booked an emergency app for a child's passport in London; it came 3 days later.

Also a side note; my sons passport had "F" instead of "M" for ages too!! They obviously weren't bothered by that.

Scbchl · 15/02/2022 17:01

Really hope you can sort something out and get going, so gutting.

This reminded me to renew my 17 year olds passport and checked and my 12 year olds expires in July also so both done now, cheers.

FantasticFebruary · 15/02/2022 17:14

@olympicsrock

Thanks Jiving…. Just seeing that the appointments available do change so I will keep checking. Prob the best I can hope for.

Trying to come up with a plan B, C and D.
B - DH and DS2 go and DS1 And I try to join them for the last few days if passport arrives?
C Three of us go and DS to stay with best friend??
D All stay at home ??

E - change holiday for Easter?

C- how would DS2 feel about that? Would DS2's best friends parents be up for that?? I'd happily have DS's best friend for half term.

Only you know how DS2 would feel or if it's possible to change holiday to Easter.

Watapalava · 15/02/2022 17:15

OP it can take 7 days from appointment but doesn't always mean it will take 7 days so worth chancing the appointment slot. Once i turned up at the passport office and waited all day for a cancellation slot (try that?)

There has NEVER been same day renewal for a child in England so people are lying or getting confused - the fastest has always been one week

refusetobeasheep · 15/02/2022 17:21

my colleague was stopped at the gate yesterday as her youngest boy's passport runs out late April. Refused boarding. All kids with her in tears. She can see the pilot and begs him to help. Amazingly he does and calls the destination airport who agree to let the child in. Made the plane late and is a high risk strategy though!!

VanGoghsDog · 15/02/2022 17:26

@refusetobeasheep

my colleague was stopped at the gate yesterday as her youngest boy's passport runs out late April. Refused boarding. All kids with her in tears. She can see the pilot and begs him to help. Amazingly he does and calls the destination airport who agree to let the child in. Made the plane late and is a high risk strategy though!!
Is the same pilot flying the plane back then?

Did everyone stand up and clap?

ENoeuf · 15/02/2022 17:28

Watapalava
There has NEVER been same day renewal for a child in England so people are lying or getting confused - the fastest has always been one week

This isn’t accurate unless you are saying I’m lying? I got an appointment in NI, flew there with all dcs documents and waited a few hours to collect it. This was about 15 years ago.

Louisianagumbo · 15/02/2022 17:31

@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…

Yeah, the French are bringing back the guillotine to deal with that problem. 🙄

Honestly, the French want you to leave, you want to leave, it's not that difficult to get you back to the UK. Talk about over-reaction.

RitaJosephina · 15/02/2022 17:35

@refusetobeasheep

my colleague was stopped at the gate yesterday as her youngest boy's passport runs out late April. Refused boarding. All kids with her in tears. She can see the pilot and begs him to help. Amazingly he does and calls the destination airport who agree to let the child in. Made the plane late and is a high risk strategy though!!
Were there unicorns in this dream too?
ENoeuf · 15/02/2022 17:35

Until 2016 you could renew same day for a child

Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!
NamechangeApril21 · 15/02/2022 17:39

I think children's passports are 7 day waits for child protection reasons - to stop a parent taking a child abroad without the other parents permission before they've had a chance to be stopped. So I don't think you can rush them faster than that. Unless this has changed, but worth checking.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 15/02/2022 17:40

@refusetobeasheep

my colleague was stopped at the gate yesterday as her youngest boy's passport runs out late April. Refused boarding. All kids with her in tears. She can see the pilot and begs him to help. Amazingly he does and calls the destination airport who agree to let the child in. Made the plane late and is a high risk strategy though!!
Ha ha ha yes, that really happened.
refusetobeasheep · 15/02/2022 17:41

wow, well my colleague is now in France so somehow she managed it!

bruffin · 15/02/2022 17:42

@caringcarer

He won't be allowed to travel. You should always have 6 months valid time left on passport since Brexit.
This is not true and please dont spread it

I was worried about my passport, flying out saturday and passport date is July. Everywhere says 3 months for Spain atm. Im renewing it as soon as i get back to go to Iceland in May

Louisianagumbo · 15/02/2022 17:45

@ENoeuf

Watapalava There has NEVER been same day renewal for a child in England so people are lying or getting confused - the fastest has always been one week

This isn’t accurate unless you are saying I’m lying? I got an appointment in NI, flew there with all dcs documents and waited a few hours to collect it. This was about 15 years ago.

@ENoeuf is correct, @Watapalava. You couldn't get a child's first passport in a day but you could renew their passport through the premium one day service. They stopped doing it in, I think, 2016.
gogohm · 15/02/2022 17:48

@Fluffyslippersohyes

You could travel to Ireland (maybe still can) without a passport but some airlines ask for them. Exh used his government id

VanGoghsDog · 15/02/2022 17:48

@Bostromani

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.

I don't need to "check" my passport, I know it runs to August 2026.
notimagain · 15/02/2022 17:48

@refusetobeasheep

wow, well my colleague is now in France so somehow she managed it!
TBF historically the usual response to captains requesting anything even slightly off piste from officialdom, especially in a foreign country, was usually something along the lines of “you may be in charge up there but down here ….” I can understand why some are sceptical..

It would be interesting to get the full story.

Peanut82 · 15/02/2022 17:48

I renewed my kids passports a couple of weeks ago, never had to do a face to face I did it all online.
If you really can't get another passport in time then I'm afraid he won't be able to board

blueshoes · 15/02/2022 17:53

@ENoeuf

Watapalava There has NEVER been same day renewal for a child in England so people are lying or getting confused - the fastest has always been one week

This isn’t accurate unless you are saying I’m lying? I got an appointment in NI, flew there with all dcs documents and waited a few hours to collect it. This was about 15 years ago.

My ds 15 was in exactly the same position in October last year. They won't allow fast track or same day renewal but they will post the passport. It does not have to be 7 days just the minimum time it takes for the renewed passport to reach you by post.

We had our emergency appt on Monday and received the renewed passport midday Thursday just in time to take a flight early morning on Friday. If and when you get your appt (just keep stalking the website), tell the passport office about your situation. They will say there is nothing they can do but I think they did try to fast track it behind the scenes.

Make sure you check what COVID restrictions there are in terms of jabs and covid passports are required by Spain for your son. That is the other potential time sensitive hurdle.

Louisianagumbo · 15/02/2022 17:56

@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.

Not more lax. Nothing to do with WTC. The UK and RoI have a special arrangement and you can still enter the country without a passport but you do need some sort of ID, like a photo driving licence.
Foolsrule · 15/02/2022 17:57

@refusetobeasheep - don’t be ridiculous. Of course that didn’t happen. A pilot simply doesn’t have that power Hmm

Having done a stint working at Heathrow, it never ceased to amaze me how many people were - quite simply - a bit hard of thinking. So many would turn up with out of date passports, or spectacularly late as the M25 was busy (when is it quiet?). It was NEVER their fault. Except it was and the (inevitable) end result was that they missed their flights. I lost sympathy after about week three. The same old arguments and reasons and excuses EVERY SINGLE TIME. But never, ever, ever their fault. Idiots, the lot of them.

Foolsrule · 15/02/2022 17:59

Make sure you check what COVID restrictions there are in terms of jabs and covid passports are required by Spain for your son. That is the other potential time sensitive hurdle. very few as it turns out given the latest updates.

Alcoholabuse · 15/02/2022 18:00

Around ten years ago I had lost my passport. I don’t live far from a passport office, turned up, got told to come back in 30mins with some forms and got an express(?) passport.

Not sure that they were having a quiet day, the security guard/supervisor was just in a good mood. PP have said that you can’t get a 24 hour one for a child but maybe they can slot you in if you’re waiting outside?

But then again OP you do sound fairly rude so I’m not sure if you’re going to be the kind of person to charm them into being helpful Grin

Hoppinggreen · 15/02/2022 18:01

@refusetobeasheep

my colleague was stopped at the gate yesterday as her youngest boy's passport runs out late April. Refused boarding. All kids with her in tears. She can see the pilot and begs him to help. Amazingly he does and calls the destination airport who agree to let the child in. Made the plane late and is a high risk strategy though!!
This is totally true However the poster missed out the fact that her son had to travel in the hold