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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
MaudieandMe · 16/02/2022 09:20

@Louisianagumbo

Many people do not realise that the rules changed due to brexit.

But the op did know the rules had changed, she just forgot to check.
Warnings have been being given for years. It's been in the newspapers, on the Web and on the telly. We've been out of the EU for two years and warnings were given well before that. It's been a year since this came into force and there were warnings before and during the last year. Unless you live in a blindfold with cauliflower florets stuck in your ears, how can you not know?! Everyone knows Brexit has happened so if you don't take the opportunity to check when you book a holiday, it just shows poor reasoning.

You really are shockingly ignorant. Did you also vote for Brexit, I wonder?

You obviously don't realise that there are millions of us Brits living in the EU and other parts of the world who have been negatively affected by fucking Brexit and will continue to refer to it as FUCKING BREXIT for evermore.

Funnily enough, all that UK media advertising you mention doesn't extend overseas. But why would you care in your little Island bubble mentality?
🤦🏻‍♀️

Louisianagumbo · 16/02/2022 09:24

[quote notimagain]@Louisianagumbo

Oh, yes, that terribly difficult arithmetic of adding 10 to the year. 🙄

I may be wrong but Indon’t think how difficult the arithmetic is or isn’t was the point being made.

The issue is how many people are aware that the printed date of expiry of a UK passport is irrelevant for many destinations and that you have to do that arithmetic in the first place.[/quote]
It was another person who mentioned that people had to do arithmetic not me. I just commented that it's not difficult arithmetic to do.

I haven't travelled since before Brexit and I've given up on the news and even I, who am comparatively uninformed, know that it's 10 years from issue and you need 3 months to be remaining but many countries advise it to be six months. Because it's been announced so many times! People do have some responsibility to keep themselves informed. Howcmany people just show up with one day remaining when they're going to countries like Egypt? I suspect very few because they've made basic, organisational enquiries.

BABAHOTEL · 16/02/2022 09:24

@WombatChocolate

Given Brexit has happened, bringing a number of changes in this kind of area, you could reasonably be expected to check your passports complied with CURRENT requirements, SOONER than a week before.

Yes, Brexit has changed the duration required for this particular destination (and I am not a supporter of Brexit) BUT this isn’t about whether this problem arising is due to Brexit or the Op.

When you plan to travel abroad, a basic admin thing is to check the passport dates for all the family members travelling…..usually at the time of booking, or in good time to act if one needs renewing. This was the case before Brexit and now. It is even more the case given Brexit has brought in changes and due to Covid many of us haven’t been abroad since Brexit, so need to properly families ourselves with the new current requirements.

The fact is, Op didn’t do that.

The fact is, she asked for advice and when people reported facts about the point she would be turned away, she was rude and told them not to comment further on the thread….when once it’s been opened, is open to everyone. She asked them not to state what she could read herself……but of course if she could read it herself, why would you need a thread anyway. And this was after numerous people had to,d her there would be NO reports of people who had got away with it, which is what she really wanted to hear. The reality wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

Most people would be a bit sympathetic to the situation Op found herself in. An admin failure can happen to any of us. When it does, we can feel disappointed but have to accept responsibility too. Where OP lost much of the sympathy she probably would have had, was in her rudeness to posters who spent their time replying to the question she asked, and also in never really being willing to accept any responsibility for what had happened.

Yes, we all get that the situation was stressful. None of us would like to find ourselves in the situation, and it happens to lots of people, because basic failures of admin happen all the time. Op hadn’t committed a terrible crime but a failure of organisation and was hoping to wing it and get through and that the rules might be just a bit flexible….wasn’t prepared to accept that this isn’t the case when several people had explained it, but kept hoping longer, that somehow, those who said they weren’t flexible would be wrong, or still she could squeeze her way through. Stressed doesn’t mean you can be rude. Appreciating and understanding when you’ve been rude, or made a mistake is a basic expectation we can have of adults.

So how did Op come across? A bit disorganised not to have checked….no-one really minds that…we can all imagine it happening to us too. But rude and arrogant is what people didn’t like in the early part of this thread. Brexit clearly played a role in this, in terms of it determining a specific length of time needed for this particular location , that the passport would have got them into pre-Covid, but given as others mentioned, the fact OP hadn’t checked the passports means it could have easily fully expired anyway, or that a failure to check passports or current requirements given all the changes that have about due to Covid, means allowing this to happen was even more daft. Not having a passport a week before the holiday lies at the Op’s feet, not Brexits. All the other people getting on that plane next week will have lived through Covid too and no doubt many of them will have had to check their passports and renew them.

OP unfortunately came across as the kind of person you meet in real life who has made a basic error, but rather than acknowledging their part in it, arrogantly is sure there must be a way for them to get what they want and surely the rules can’t apply to them, and surely there must be a way to sneak through. And at the same time as someone who dismisses anyone who speaks reason (often in a kind way) and is read shouts louder ‘tell me the way I can circumvent the rules…I cannot believe it’s not possible’. People generally don’t like these characteristics. But then I guess people with such characteristics are rarely going to have the self awareness to spot them, and if they do, won’t have the humility to acknowledge them, much less to apologise to those they’ve been rude to…because they always feel justified in their own behaviour.

Anyway, regardless of all that…I hope OP that you do get your passports or postpone your holiday and can all go. I can see this is a horrible stressful position, regardless of the causes. And perhaps when you’re lying on a beach or going onto the plane at whichever point that is, you’ll remember the many pages of this thread and laugh, and instead of thinking of ‘the bitches on MN’ think instead about a thread, which perhaps made you think about a few things, even if you’d never admit them in real life or on MN itself.

Genuinely, I hope your family get their holiday and you all have a lovely time.

You have way too much time on your hands and putting CAPITALS in the middle of a sentence is a PA move.
Peregrina · 16/02/2022 09:35

It was another person who mentioned that people had to do arithmetic not me. I just commented that it's not difficult arithmetic to do.

I raised the issue - and someone else has already said that it's not the difficulty which is the problem, (although for some it might be.)

Normally to see if a document is still valid, you look for the expiry date. Rely on an expiry date for a UK passport, and you may well get caught out.

Carriemac · 16/02/2022 09:39

@IpanemaPeaHen

Yes the pet travel changes just mentioned are a bit of a pain. Our dogs EU passport is now obsolete.

I have to get the dog inspected by a UK vet within 10 days of travel to get the correct paperwork, each time we travel which gets expensive if you travel frequently to the EU to visit family as we do. The rabies vaccination requirements have also changed so I’d advise anyone thinking of travelling to Europe with a pet to have a chat with their vet a few months before travel.

The info is on the gov website but the vet said they are still learning as it’s all changed.

Our vet advised us to get an eu passport for the dog in the country we were visiting (ROI) a vet was happy to do that for us there and so now all of us (except DH) have EU passports . I'm an Irish citizen Smile
notimagain · 16/02/2022 09:55

@Louisianagumbo

Howcmany people just show up with one day remaining when they're going to countries like Egypt? I suspect very few because they've made basic, organisational enquiries.

With my ex airline employee hat on I’d say unfortunately it really is more people than you’d imagine…

Doesn’t tend to happen for places that are openly perceived as being difficult but it’s very often the places perceived as being trivial to get into that catch people out.

I wish I had a pound/euro for every person I’ve heard at an airport say they didn’t know that as a UK passport holder they needed a Visa/ESTA for places such as Oz, or that some supposedly paperwork friendly places really do need 6 months passport validity on arrival (e.g Singapore)

IpanemaPeaHen · 16/02/2022 09:57

Carrimac the dog and I are the only ones without EU passports in our family. We now have dual passports for the dc since Brexit. Dh is Dutch national. But for travel to France and NL at Easter we can no longer use the dog EU passport. Need to have new paperwork.

Louisianagumbo · 16/02/2022 09:59

@Peregrina

It's not like going to Australia or Mexico or wherever.

For the past 30 odd years a lot of us have been jumping onto cheap flights to places in the EU, without many formalities. Now relatively suddenly, the rules have been changed, and the changes haven't been communicated all that well.

It's not relatively sudden, though. It's been well publicised for several years now and actually the govt website has given stricter advice than might be necessary to minimise the risk of anyone being refused entry to countries. It's been everywhere about the 10 year rule and discussed ad infinitum. Remember the op wasn't confused by the rules, she just forgot to check the passport.
Louisianagumbo · 16/02/2022 10:03

I wish I had a pound/euro for every person I’ve heard at an airport say they didn’t know that as a UK passport holder they needed a Visa/ESTA for places such as Oz, or that some supposedly paperwork friendly places really do need 6 months passport validity on arrival (e.g Singapore)

Then, as I said, people not doing due diligence is not a Brexit issue. It's an organisational issue.

Peregrina · 16/02/2022 10:10

One of the rules, the one about not adding extra months onto a passport renewed early, most certainly wasn't communicated well. The rule was sneaked in, and I for one only found out about it via the moneysavingexpert.

notimagain · 16/02/2022 11:11

@Peregrina

One of the rules, the one about not adding extra months onto a passport renewed early, most certainly wasn't communicated well. The rule was sneaked in, and I for one only found out about it via the moneysavingexpert.
Agreed Perigrina.

I reckon when it comes to passports, visas etc there are two sorts of posters here..those that have already been caught out by organisational issues and those who will be.

Watapalava · 16/02/2022 11:21

The 10 year rule was in paper and on bbc constantly

I told family about it 18 months ago

It became more publicised last xmas when the extension ran out

The uk gov site had a passport checker on for months which told you when your passport was valid for Europe til

I renewed mine a year ago - losing 13 months because of that rule. As did most I know

It’s been all over the news and given it’s on every gov site regarding ‘entry requirements’ for individual countries I don’t know how people could have missed it

Maybe previously. but with covid now and all the changing rules surely the first thing you do before booking a holiday is to check the entry for that country? To make sure all of you meet the requirements covid wise?

Esp EU where countries have ‘entry’ rules then different rules on arrival in terms of accessing amenities

Plus there are now rules in terms of boosters, days from vaccination (second doses now no longer enough if too long has passed etc)

Stravaig · 16/02/2022 11:23

Just reading the ETIAS info kindly shared by a previous poster. It looks sensible, well-designed, even generous (minimal cost, valid for 3 years). Any thoughts from industry insiders? Has it launched as planned? Any non-UK folks already travelled with an ETIAS authorisation?

spongebobscaredypants · 16/02/2022 11:45

Happened to me last week. Risked a face to face at Liverpool 6 days before we flew. It arrived within 4 days

notimagain · 16/02/2022 11:46

@Stravaig

Just reading the ETIAS info kindly shared by a previous poster. It looks sensible, well-designed, even generous (minimal cost, valid for 3 years). Any thoughts from industry insiders? Has it launched as planned? Any non-UK folks already travelled with an ETIAS authorisation?
www.etiasvisa.com/etias-news/how-will-the-etias-system-work

“ ETIAS will start at the end of 2022. Although the exact launch date is not yet known, ETIAS will be up and running by late 2022.”

Not heard anything about implementation locally (France).

Delatron · 16/02/2022 12:24

It’s happened to so many people. Just because some have picked it up in the news doesn’t mean it’s common knowledge. Maybe when entering passport details for flights there should be a way to flag up any issues. So you can’t book a flight without enough time left and no more than 10 years after issue date.

Peregrina · 16/02/2022 12:47

Here you are, the moneysavingexpert's post on the matter. This happened almost three and a half years ago.

When we initially contacted the Home Office on Wednesday it refused to officially confirm there had been any change in policy, but documents released a day later explained the change has been made as part of preparations for the UK to leave the European Union.

The news will come as a particular blow to travellers as some countries require you to have up to six months' validity left on your passport when visiting. UK passports are usually valid for 10 years, but if you're travelling to a country which requires you to enter with validity remaining on your passport, you may have no choice but to renew early.

It's very hard to argue that it's nothing to do with Brexit then and communicated well in advance!!

How many people knew this rule was coming in, in the spring and summer of 2018? Ones who might not have bothered to renew early if they had known? And we can't use Covid as an excuse for this not being publicised.

WombatChocolate · 16/02/2022 13:28

If you haven’t travelled for a couple of years before Covid, plus you know Brexit just MIGHT have had an impacted some sort , wouldn’t you be EXTRA careful to check the regulations and your own passports…..wouldn’t you be more careful than previously?

It could well be that this stuff hasn’t be publicised enough, but the onus does fall on families to check the current regulations and their own passports. People have to take responsibility for that.

Given the contras toy changing Covid rules for travel, I’d have thought anyone going abroad, especially with children would have been extra vigilant by dint of necessity in keeping up with the ever changing Covid rules abroad. Quite how you can drift along in an oblivious way in the current climate, is unclear to me.

I’m going abroad in the summer. I haven’t been since before Covid. I’ve looked at the current rules for travel. I haven’t been since before Brexit, so I’ve looked to see if my EHIC card is valid (it’s not but there’s a similar equivalent I can get) and stuff about passports. I’ve looked at our passports and can see one needs renewing to be valid. I’ve needed to do more checks because of Covid and Brexit. Things I was unaware of have come ugh the checking. Surely no-one travels for the first time now after this period of change (and on-going change) without expecting to do a few checks and bit of reading up.

BABAHOTEL · 16/02/2022 13:34

@WombatChocolate

If you haven’t travelled for a couple of years before Covid, plus you know Brexit just MIGHT have had an impacted some sort , wouldn’t you be EXTRA careful to check the regulations and your own passports…..wouldn’t you be more careful than previously?

It could well be that this stuff hasn’t be publicised enough, but the onus does fall on families to check the current regulations and their own passports. People have to take responsibility for that.

Given the contras toy changing Covid rules for travel, I’d have thought anyone going abroad, especially with children would have been extra vigilant by dint of necessity in keeping up with the ever changing Covid rules abroad. Quite how you can drift along in an oblivious way in the current climate, is unclear to me.

I’m going abroad in the summer. I haven’t been since before Covid. I’ve looked at the current rules for travel. I haven’t been since before Brexit, so I’ve looked to see if my EHIC card is valid (it’s not but there’s a similar equivalent I can get) and stuff about passports. I’ve looked at our passports and can see one needs renewing to be valid. I’ve needed to do more checks because of Covid and Brexit. Things I was unaware of have come ugh the checking. Surely no-one travels for the first time now after this period of change (and on-going change) without expecting to do a few checks and bit of reading up.

Still got way too much time on your hands, still the PA CAPITALS!!!
BABAHOTEL · 16/02/2022 13:36

@WombatChocolate

If you haven’t travelled for a couple of years before Covid, plus you know Brexit just MIGHT have had an impacted some sort , wouldn’t you be EXTRA careful to check the regulations and your own passports…..wouldn’t you be more careful than previously?

It could well be that this stuff hasn’t be publicised enough, but the onus does fall on families to check the current regulations and their own passports. People have to take responsibility for that.

Given the contras toy changing Covid rules for travel, I’d have thought anyone going abroad, especially with children would have been extra vigilant by dint of necessity in keeping up with the ever changing Covid rules abroad. Quite how you can drift along in an oblivious way in the current climate, is unclear to me.

I’m going abroad in the summer. I haven’t been since before Covid. I’ve looked at the current rules for travel. I haven’t been since before Brexit, so I’ve looked to see if my EHIC card is valid (it’s not but there’s a similar equivalent I can get) and stuff about passports. I’ve looked at our passports and can see one needs renewing to be valid. I’ve needed to do more checks because of Covid and Brexit. Things I was unaware of have come ugh the checking. Surely no-one travels for the first time now after this period of change (and on-going change) without expecting to do a few checks and bit of reading up.

You're absolutely just perfect! So organised, so informed.

You deserve a 🏅

🙄

TheTempest · 16/02/2022 13:36

I had the same problem last year with DD (12). I’m going to be completely honest, it was totally fine and no one said a word. She was going with my mum and I waited at the airport until they went through just in case but it was completely fine. I nearly went grey with worry though!

Alexandra2001 · 16/02/2022 13:50

@Watapalava

Whether its been advertised or not, over the last 18 months, isn't the point, in a pandemic, when most weren't travelling, things like passport rules go in one ear and out the other.

Its an irrelevance, i mean how many people even know there is a Govt website?

Might have been better if we'd been warned about all this in 2016, rather than the likes of Bojo telling us all nothing would change "they need our holiday money/us more than them""

I'd imagine those booking through travel agents will be told and those booking independently are more likely to get caught out.

Watapalava · 16/02/2022 14:15

Alex - maybe last year when travel was easier

But now, with boosters, lack of entry for unvax etc I don't believe for a second anyone is going away right now without checking entry requirements for the country though surely. They vary massively and are way much strict and detailed than last year

Toanewstart23 · 16/02/2022 14:21

@TheTempest

I had the same problem last year with DD (12). I’m going to be completely honest, it was totally fine and no one said a word. She was going with my mum and I waited at the airport until they went through just in case but it was completely fine. I nearly went grey with worry though!
What country
Thunderpunt · 16/02/2022 17:14

@Toanewstart23 Wales GrinGrin

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