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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
froggybiby · 15/02/2022 19:22

I would also be careful if you do manage to get on another flight that you don't just book a single, as usually if you miss the first part of your return journey, that voids the whole trip.

MaudieandMe · 15/02/2022 19:25

@Louisianagumbo

Pre Brexit, you could travel until your passport was out of date. Now the UK is a third country, you need 6 months validity before you go and a lot of people have been caught out by this change. So yes, another Brexit bonus.

This is rubbish. People always had to check their passports for the expiry date, it's just now for the EU it's 3 months earlier. The op didn't check the passport and think: oh I can travel up to the last day. She just didn't check the passport. Period. I got caught out similarly when going to Australia. I just hadn't checked when my passport was up. Why can't people take responsibility for their own mistake rather than blame brexit, which happened two years ago and over which there's been a zillion warnings given.

Of course bloody fucking Brexit is to blame here. Are you ordinarily a mean person or completely dim?

The child’s passport isn’t out of date at all. It still has over 2 months left to run which would have been fine prior to Brexit and he could have travelled to Spain for the family holiday and returned, completely legally.

It’s only because of Brexit that U.K. travellers have to have at least 3 months remaining on their passport before travelling within the EU.

OohRahhMaki · 15/02/2022 19:30

Urgh the same thing happened to me and my partner.
He got an emergency appointment and then was able to collect his passport from the passport office, so the whole thing took a week.

Could you look into this option for your child?
(PS Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I haven;t RTFT and am dashing out the door)!

SarahAndQuack · 15/02/2022 19:32

@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 absolutely happened, it's true. I don't know why people are being so mean.

Afterwards the same flight brought back hundreds of thousands in Brexit benefits, and we all welcomed Princess Di back from hiding after the car crash body swap scandal was brought to light.

OohRahhMaki · 15/02/2022 19:33

Also (Plan E) and really not great, but could you cancel your holiday altogether and recoup the money. 2 weeks notice isn't great but better than a lot of cancellations.

Try to transfer flights to a later date and all go together once the passport has been renewed?

CharlotteRose90 · 15/02/2022 19:33

@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!!
Biggest load of crap I’ve read on here and I work for an airline; this wouldn’t happen as it isn’t the captains decision. It’s border force and they would straight up say no. Nice try though
Sodullincomparison · 15/02/2022 19:36

I have had a same day emergency passport issued. Had to travel to the other end of the country to do it. Some sites say yes for children and others say no so a couple of calls to Peterborough might help.

I led a school holiday and a parent didn’t give us a passport for their child until we were leaving. Nothing was flagged as we handed over 30 passports at the French border control but it was flagged coming back into the U.K. and they cut a part of it and we then realised it was a year out of date! Did the parent know??? Probably!

Pre-brexit so probably a different approach plus the computer will automatically flag it up I’m sure for flights.

Original poster
olympicsrock · 15/02/2022 19:41

Plan E to cancel altogether and go at a later date is looking probable.
We lose £360 to transfer the flights.
Can’t risk the upset of being turned back and don’t want the upset of DS staying at home.

A week at home together seems a better option.

OP posts:
ittakes2 · 15/02/2022 19:48

I would go to your friday appt and say you know its 7 days but do they think there is a chance it could be processed and posted same day so it arrives Sat. Worth a shot. You have to update it anyway so nothing to lose.

adriftabroad · 15/02/2022 19:52

They are very strict in Spain now, I live here and my DD only has half my surname and a Spanish passport and mine is British.

The amount of times I've been stopped just for this. The amount of times she's been questioned.

Anything odd with DC's passport is flagged. It's due in part to child abduction etc.

garlictwist · 15/02/2022 19:57

@Delatron

Another way to get caught out is the issue date. If it’s more than 10 years (even if you have 7,8,9 months left on it) you will be refused boarding.

So don’t just check expiry date, check the issue date is less than 10 years. This is new since Brexit abs hasn’t been well publicised, catching lots out.

Yes, my sister was refused travel because of this. You need to check the date of issue as well as the expiry.
Nocutenamesleft · 15/02/2022 20:07

@olympicsrock

Not rude just very stressed having found out that our family holiday is up shit creek. Very difficult situation. I’ve read the you gov website and phoned the passport office. Just clutching at straws and wanting personal experience of whether it would be worth attempting to travel on the understanding that two of us would then travel home if he was refused entry ( which is know is highly probable)

Sounds like they do check that the passport has enough time on it from these experiences. Bloody brexit

Of course they check the passport!!

Ha. You thought they’d miss it? They might miss it one place. But there and back. No way.

Nocutenamesleft · 15/02/2022 20:11

@HaveringWavering

OP I work in aviation law and often help airlines with customer complains when passenger s get upset about being denied boarding. They have a system called TIMATIC which the check in agents can see and which tells them what the entry requirements are. If they let someone board and they do not have the correct documentation that person will be sent back at the other end and the airline will be slapped with a chunky fine. They absolutely cannot bend the rules I’m afraid.
Off topic

But aviation law? . How cool!!!

Tell me. What kind of things do you do?

Ginger1982 · 15/02/2022 20:15

I think your best bet is to cancel. You can't take a child to the airport knowing he'll be turned away and I couldn't, in good conscience, go on holiday with the rest of my family and leave my son at home. It's not his fault.

cabrillolighthouse · 15/02/2022 20:17

This happened to us Blush. Realised one of the DC passports had expired less than a week before we were due to go away. I managed to get an appointment within a couple of days at a passport office 4 hrs from home. Definitely keep refreshing available appointments as they suddenly pop up with availability that wasn't there before and be prepared to travel!

When I explained the predicament to the passport official they were absolutely lovely, although obviously they couldn't promise anything but made a note of our imminent travel date on the application. They said they would let me know as soon as it was ready and I could travel back up and collect it from the passport office rather than waste an extra day having it posted. I got the text to say it was ready just two days later and jumped on a train back up to Liverpool to collect! Such a relief!

Fingers crossed for you OP

RB68 · 15/02/2022 20:29

I had to renew short notice for a work thing, did it all in one day in London - drop off am and collect 4pm. Lots of hanging around but worked in a cafe for the day (chose a really big one so no issue so long as I kept buying drinks (and had lunch there) )not sure how it works for kids but seems even if you rebook you need it anyways so gotta be done

Northernlurker · 15/02/2022 20:31

I would rebook and then look for somewhere for a mini break in the uk next week if you can. Couple of nights in premier inn near a good attraction, theme park or similar and you will all feel refreshed,

PinkTonic · 15/02/2022 20:38

I know someone who managed to get next day for a child but both parents had to go to the passport office with the child and there was a list of documents they had to bring. They then had to wait the next day for it to be issued. It might be worth a begging phone call?

cjpark · 15/02/2022 20:39

You wont be able to board OP. If they dont stop you at check in, you'll be stopped boarding.

Whammyyammy · 15/02/2022 20:41

@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!!
I know the woman in question. To make up for lost time, the airline dragged a Concorde out of a hangar, and boarded all passengers on it. Free champagne brunch was served, and the cabin crew handed out 400 lambert and butler cigarettes and 1 litre of Malibu duty free to all passengers as they arrived at their destination an hour before they were due to depart.
Whammyyammy · 15/02/2022 20:43

@cjpark

You wont be able to board OP. If they dont stop you at check in, you'll be stopped boarding.
And if you get past check in and the gate, you'll be stopped at immigration at the other end and put on the next flight home....
Alexandra2001 · 15/02/2022 20:44

Another Brexit win we keep hearing about..... along with pet passports

all i can suggest is you try an emergency application, £122 for a child and see if you can in under the week

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 15/02/2022 20:49

[quote Silverswirl]@daimbarsatemydogsbone
As others have said you are wrong.
Before Brexit you could travel to Spain and back right up until the expiry date on your passport!
Now you need 3 months left.
It’s changed since Brexit. Not sure why you arnt getting that!
So yes, bloody Brexit is accurate.[/quote]
Please quote where I denied that?
It’s absolutely fuck all to do with Brexit because op has admitted to not even knowing or checking the expiry date. So that is nothing to do with Brexit - not sure why you aren’t “getting” that.

If you are making the ridiculously narrow point that but for the Brexit requirements, in this case the failure of op to bother to check passport expiry dates wouldn’t have been an issue, you are really really clutching at straws for reasons to blame Brexit for someone’s failure to bother checking passport dates.

Ginger1982 · 15/02/2022 20:50

@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!!
Yeah, this didn't happen. She might have made it to France but she's spinning you a line about this. Did she actually take time out of her holiday to regale you with all this? 🙄
Examsrus · 15/02/2022 20:53

Just wondering if all these short notice passports success stories were pre covid times?