Passport panic - is there any chance? Not Aibu sorry

[NewbieT]

Just realised I have more than 5 months left on my passport but it was issued more than ten years ago - no idea why - never asked for a passport extension.
Due to travel on Saturday (Ryanair to Bordeaux)
No appointments available for the passport office to do a same day passport.

is there a chance in hell I’ll get an appointment?

If I turn up at an office is there any chance they’ll see me?

if I turn up at the airport is there any chance they’ll let me fly ?? I’ve got a valid passport FFS 😭

Im so devastated, feel like such an idiot.

any advice / experience of this PLEASE??

Sorry OP I think the best you can try is see another changing your trip. Apparently they are only seeing people who turn up if they already have had an application on the system for over 10 weeks and are within 48 hours of their flight.

@dementedpixie The OP literally says it was issued more than ten years ago which sadly means that the extra months are neither here nor there.

OP I'm sorry to say that they absolutely will not let you fly.

If it's any consolation I had a member of check in staff query a client of mine's passport the other day. The passport was actually less than 4 years old so more than fine, but had extra months on which had confused the check in agent. It's not just travellers struggling to get to grips with the new rules.

Am I going mad? How can a passport that was issued more than 10 years ago, be of the status 'issued less than 10 years ago' on any future date?

This is reminding me of this
forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107926751

Thanks so much for linking that thread - very funny! 😄

Thanks for the replies

It was issued Jan 2012
Expires Oct 2022

I knew the rules, I also knew I'd never asked for an extension so I had no idea I had a passport issued with 10 years 9 months until I checked yesterday and my stomach went through the floor

Which passport office was that, please? I'd give it a go if I thought there was any chance it would work

Good luck OP - probably worth a shot to go in person if there is a office not too far. Keep checking the slots just in case.
ignore the sanctimonious people - doesn’t help!

I thought that was part of the problem, they don't wait for you to ask, it was something they did automatically.

Yes, they automatically added up to 9 months from the old passport validity so you wouldnt have been informed about it.

Hope you get something sorted out

I honestly think you've no chance.

Can you rearrange the trip?

See if you can get an appointment at a passport office
I got one in Jan
booked and paid on the Sunday and collected passport Tuesday morning in Newport
cost 177

I was listening to a guy on the radio on Monday giving advice on this very subject, he said that the information the foreign office was giving out was incorrect (their website hasnt been updated yet).
So it’s nothing to do with the issue date, you must have 3 months left on your passport expiry date on the day you are due to return for any travel in Europe.
Hope this helps. (The guy was him you see on t.v. giving travel advice, can’t remember his name).

Oh and he also said those that had been wrongly refused travel were now being compensated.

I think he was reporting this:

www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-commission-says-uk-holidaymakers-holding-10-year-old-passports-should-not-be-turned-away-from-flights/

Which is a different issue. The penne that this clarification applies to are those who would be entering an EU country within the ten years, but leaving it a few days after the ten years. They'd been refused boarding because the ten years would expire while they were away.

Sadly OP would be entering the country over the 10 year limit, so it doesn't apply

Penne? People

It is about the issue date as well as the expiry date.

As OPs passport was issued in January 2012 its expiry for travelling within Europe was January 2022 as it can't be valid for more than 10 years on the date of travel.

@dementedpixie Ive remembered his name it’s Simon Calder and he definitely said it’s not the issue date🤷‍♀️ Must be giving out false information then, makes it even more confusing for people who have listened to him.

From the express (link below)

"Simon said: “The EU is the only organisation - 27 countries, plus the hanger-ons, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland - who have any interest in the issue date of your passport.

“They insist that your passport, on the day you go to the European Union, is younger than 10 years.”

Travellers will have to renew their passport if there is less than three months left on the passport.

Or if the passport is 10 years old or more, the day after you leave the country - it is advisable to count this from the date the passport was issued.

Simon clarified: "An awful lot of people are not going to need to renew their passport, the crucial thing is - on the day you go into the EU was it issued less than 10 years ago on the day you plan to come out, does it have three months less?"

www-express-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/1601772/Simon-Calder-passports-renew-EU-rules-how-to-apply-for-new-passport-GMB-video/amp?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16534712706565&amp_ct=1653471454743&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.express.co.uk%2Ftravel%2Farticles%2F1601772%2FSimon-Calder-passports-renew-EU-rules-how-to-apply-for-new-passport-GMB-video

There are 2 qualifying conditions for travelling to a European country and I think you are getting confused between the 2. On date of entry your passport needs to be within 10 years of the issue date. On the date you leave you need 3 months remaining on your passport (this is where you look at the actual expiry date)

The advice for EU and Schengen Zone countries emphasizes that a UK passport must meet the following requirements

Issued less than ten years before the date a person enters the country (check the ‘date of issue

Valid for at least three months after a person plans to leave the country (check the ‘expiry date’)

“You must check if your passport meets these requirements before you travel. If your passport was issued before 1 October 2018, extra months might have been added to its expiry date,” the advice reads.

FCDO has announced that these added months would not be accepted as valid for entry to the countries of EU and Schengen from Britain.

But fundamentally, what all these wordy and somewhat confusing articles say is that you cannot enter a EU country if your passport was issued more than ten years ago. Which is the OP's problem.