Does everyone need a passport to travel?

[Wonderi]

Bit of a weird one.

Is there anyone who doesn’t need a passport to travel?

I thought you had to have one if you want to go to a different country.

I know someone who isn’t British but has lived in England for many years.

They want to travel to their home country but don’t have a passport and say they don’t need one.

YABU - not everyone needs a passport to travel.
YANBU - everyone needs a passport to travel (unless you’re the king or something).

😂😂😂

if my next message is from a border control centre, you’ll all vouch for me, won’t you?

I'm sure the stories about rubber gloves have been exaggerated.

Didn't someone try and do this, I can't remember the details but they ended up doing a Daily Mail Sad Face.
They could technically travel on their documents but The Airlines weren't aware and refused to carry them.

That's correct. I am just saying that there is largely border-free travel between member countries once you are there.

My SIL did this once. She's French and needed to get back to France for a funeral but had lost her passport. She did have her EU ID card though. Took the car over to Belfast from Cairnryan on the ferry then drove down to Dublin and got a flight from there. It helps that she lives in Ayrshire so it wasn't a totally insane journey. We do that journey a lot and have never had our ID checked on the ferry, either in an irish or UK registered car.

For the PPs who said it’s impossible to book an international flight without a passport number, that’s also incorrect.

I often travel with European airlines such as Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Air France, KLM, Iberia… I have never once been asked to input my passport details either at time of booking or during check in - for “internal” flights within EU countries. I obviously do need the info if travelling to USA / UK / other countries outside of Schengen. There are also no borders or document checks if you fly from one EU (and Schengen!) country to another.

There’s a route I do quite often, similar to Frankfurt - Barcelona, on Lufthansa or one of their partners. Not only do they issue boarding passes without needing my passport details, but they also have self-boarding gates in the departures area that only scan your boarding pass to let you on to the plane, and there is no border control on landing as Germany and Spain are both in the same area. So one flies between those countries without ever needing to show a travel document or produce any evidence of being who they are at any point during their trip (of course, they could ask so you do have the docs ready).

It’s the same for Switzerland, Austria (at least Vienna airport), I could go on.

Airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet, however, only have one version of software that doesn’t automagically spot the difference between Schengen and non-Schengen flights, so everybody inputs passport details regardless of route.

And obviously all UK-departing flights will ask for that info because there is a border check when leaving the country (which doesn’t happen physically in airports anymore).

Thank you to everyone’s advice, it’s been really helpful :)

OP, as already pointed out, if the people you know have either EU settled or pre-settled status, or a 'certificate of application', an EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit, a Frontier Worker Visa, or are an S2 Healthcare Visitor, they have the entitlement to use their national ID card to enter the UK. They have this right for life (if they have indefinite leave to remain) or for as long as their visa/permit is valid for.

HOWEVER.

Before they go, get them to check that their card has a biometric chip. You don't need a card with a chip to travel right now, but this rule is likely to change in the not too distant future, so worth checking on gov.uk before they leave.

Also, there have been instances of carriers (airlines, ferry companies) not understanding the rules and refusing to onboard people with ID cards. They should know, but occasionally it goes wrong.

What your friend should do, is log on to their UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account by going to the View and Prove service (https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status). This will give them access to their online immigration status (otherwise known as an eVisa). They should screenshot this before they go and have it to hand.

If the carrier won't accept a screenshot, you can also go to the same service and generate a 'share code', which you give to the airline. They can enter that share code and see the immigration status for themselves by going to this page https://www.gov.uk/check-immigration-status. This will prove to the airline that you have the right to enter the UK as part of the Withdrawal Agreement, and with that, the right to use your ID card to do so.

Final tip: If your friend has permission to live in the UK under the Withdrawal Agreement (EU settled or pre-settled status), they would have entered details of their documents (passport, ID card, or both) as part of their application. Since they did that application (probably in around 2020-22) if they have renewed any ID document (because it expired) they need to go back to their UKVI account and update their document details – because if their new document details don't match the original ones stored in their UKVI account, it will cause problems.

If after all this they are still refused, they are entitled to compensation, as well as reimbursement, re-routing or rebooking. Hope this helps :)

She could just have got on the tunnel at Folkestone. You do not need a passport to leave the UK, and you only need a French ID card to enter France.

I went to Spain for my holidays this year and took a trip to Gibraltar for the day. Crossing the border into Gibraltar and coming back to Spain again was a real aggravation, and yes, we needed our passports. (Gibraltar is considered British territory)

I thought about going to Jersey for my holidays next year and on the ferry and on the plane I need "photo ID" which gas to be my passport because I don't drive. So even going from England to a British Overseas Territory needs something with my photo on.

I mentioned she lives in Ayrshire. Now a 10hr drive from Girvan to Folkestone to get to France would be a crazy journey!
2hr hop on the ferry, 90min to Dublin airport. 3hr later in Paris.

Ah! I thought maybe she needed/preferred to go by road. In any case, she could also have got on a plane at Edinburgh or Glasgow with her French ID card.

Just goes to show how completely pointless brexit was.

So even going from England to a British Overseas Territory needs something with my photo on.

Yes, but that is a requirement of the transporter. I assume you didn't have to show ID when you got off the ferry/plane at either end (because if you did, a driving licence almost certainly wouldn't have been acceptable).

As far as I know, when you go to Jersey from the UK and back you don't go through passport control, but you do go through customs. The naughtiest thing my Mum ever did (take that, Theresa May!) was to buy a nice Burberry mac without VAT in Jersey and wear it back through customs at Portsmouth.

(Nerdy PS: Jersey isn't a British Overseas Territory, it's a Crown Dependency. It's arguably more independent of the UK than quite a lot of places that are much further afield.)

My passport expired once and I needed to go back to my home country. I went to my home country's embassy in London and they issued an emergency travel document. Which was literally a piece of A4 paper. This was more than a decade ago.

I could leave the country without a passport if I showed the travel document but I couldn't come back in without a passport. So when I got to my home country, I renewed the passport and came back at Gatwick just fine.

No, but getting back in to U.K. can be tricky

They used to be able to travel with an IS card but rules have changed, especially after Brexit.

ID card...

My hometown in Texas is along the Rio Grande and borders Mexico. Many people work and go to school back and forth between the two countries. When I was a child, you didn't need a passport to enter Mexico or to return to the US. You had to show a driver's license or verbally declare your nationality.

In 2009, the US declared that you needed a passport to enter Mexico and return to the US. For those who live on the border, you can have a full passport or a passport card.

I have ID card from an EU country and could travel from UKto any other EU country with it. I haven’t done so since brexit so don’t know if there’s change in that. I can travel between EU countries with it with no passport

You do not need a passport to leave the UK. 1.5 million EU citizens are settled in the UK post-Brexit with only an ID card, and they travel back and forth to their home country (and other EU countries) all the time.

Some airline staff might think that you need a passport to leave, but that's their problem (until they get all jobsworth about it, which happens sometimes, sadly).

Of course, most people at the outgoing UK border will have a passport because they entered the UK with one (or, if they are British, they will be using a UK passport as it is the only government-issued travel document), but that doesn't mean that it's a requirement.

Think about it: Several categories of people can still come in to the UK with just an ID card (see https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/before-you-leave-for-the-uk and scroll down to "Check if you can travel with a national identity card"). If you needed a passport to leave, how would those people ever manage?

Some airline staff might think that you need a passport to leave, but that's their problem (until they get all jobsworth about it, which happens sometimes, sadly).

Check in staff can be absolutely stupidly hilarious. One we were flying to DH's country. Check in was for his native country, direct flight. They called immigration to check if he has real passport because the country is generally known by 1 word, but passport says full name of it😂 i swear I couldn't stop laughing after the initial anger.
How do you do check in for country you don't know proper name of is beyond me. 😂
Never again have I gone to check in as one of the first people.
The training is really lacking for check in staff. Airlines and airports should do better at least on basics.

We met many immigration officers while checking in in few countries because DH had status on paper, not in passport. Understandable in that case tbf.

Unrelated to that. I do not understand people who have easy, cheap option of 2 travel docs, but have only 1 (EU people). It's so risky imho! My embassy takes like 6 months for new passport and afaik still doesn't do national ID... Much easier to renew once every x years than deal with them and deal with having no travel ID

Yes. This. DH does have an EU passport, but also has settled status, which gives him the right to reenter the UK with just his ID card.

Border control staff of all countries often don’t know the rules. I often get my UK passport stamped by French border control, despite a) havIng EU nationality and ID card and b) French residency.

If you are entering with British passport afaik they have to stamp it. Enter on your EU docs. That's how it's done easy way

I do renter France with EU ID card! Obviously. I exit France showing EU ID card, and show UK passport to prove there’s no issue entering UK or whatever country I’m travelling to. At which point sometimes they insist on stamping the UK passport. It all depends who is on duty. When I recently returned to France, I showed EU ID card at immigration and had no problems.