Passport advice - what would you do?

[Nearlyamumoftwo]

Flying to Lanzarote a month today and realised my son's passport expires November 2026 - technically this is ok as we ar returning to the UK in July 2026 (rule is at least 3 month validity), but would your risk it??

if not - would you renew and risk the standard service which takes approx 3 weeks?

or do fast track? And if you do fast track does anyone know if the child has to accompany you??

I assume we are talking about a child here, in which case the passport will be 5 years old.

What is the issue date? That’s what is important

You are getting bad advice here. You must check the date of issue, not expiry

You have more than 3 months. It’s fine.

Wow, look at this ridiculous advice on here. Madness when this has been done to death lately.

OP he has a valid passport so use it. There is no “risk”

No it doesn’t, it explicitly says the expiry date can be outside the ten years for this purpose, it just needs to be less than ten years old on the date you arrive.

And PP is also wrong when they say only the issue date is relevant. The expiry date is relevant too, just for a different test.

The level of basic comprehension here is outstanding.

Remember to check date of issue as well

As some PP's have said, you need to ensure that the issue date tallies exactly with expiry date as it used to be possible to renew a passport and get the validity plus how many months were remaining on the old one.
So for example, I renewed my passport that expired in July 2014 in the February of that year. That meant that even though the expiry date printed in the passport was July 2024, it actually expired in February as far as authorities were concerned. Which meant a dash to get a fast track passport 2 weeks before travel in January 2024!

I work in travel and know of lots of people that have been caught out by this!

I'm not sure if the extra months were ever added to children's passports, but please do check.

If you work in travel then surely you know this is a non issue for a child’s passport.

It could never be over 10 years old, it is impossible

You’ll be fine, daughters passport expires in October. We’ve flown to both lanzarote and Paris in the last month.

The passport got a closer look at bag drop and even beeped at the boarding gate on our way to Paris last week but they confirmed it’s just because it’s close to expiry and she’s fine as long as she has 3 months from date of reentry to UK.

Renew online, they are coming back so fast now or go to the p.o. and they can do it for you

This is great advice for adult passports. Kids passports only last 5 years and are not entitled to the ‘carry over’ time that adult passports got pre brexit

Even if she doesn't need to and would be wasting time & money doing so?

It’s not about how many months you have left. It’s about date of issue.

You could have 9 months left, but if your date of issue is more than 10 years ago you can’t fly.

Theres a lot of misinformation on this thread:

1. If its a child passport it will always meet the under 10 years old criteria as its only valid for 5 years

1. If you have an adult passport the 10 year rule only applies to the date you enter the EU - at that point it needs to be less than 10 years old (add 10 years to the issue date)

1. When leaving the EU you need 3 months remaining - this can be calculated from the actual printed expiry date and isn't deducted from the calculated 10 year expiry on a passport that has extra months added

It is three months but don’t get caught on the the ten year rule - passport must have been issued less than ten years before arrival date

It’s a child

For children? 🤪😂

If you work in travel you should know that your passport would have been fine to travel with in January 2024.

It needed to be under 10 years old on the date of entry into the EU in January. 10 years from issue date would be February 2024 so it passed that test ✅️

Assuming you were only away for a couple of weeks then when you left the EU you would still have 3 months remaining as you go by the printed expiry date which was July 2024 so it also passed that test ✅️

You did not need to get a new passport before that holiday!

The OP has got (mostly) completely sound advice. Yes it’s important to check the date of issue on an adult passport, but the 3 months required until expiry are based on the printed expiry date, even if that is more than 10 years after it was issued. It’s two separate rules.

Thanks so much for all the replies. Yes he is a child so a 5 year passport! We come back at the end of July, so there will be about 3 months and 1 week left on it - and the rule is 3 months. I can't imagine they'll change the rules though?

What kind of travel do you work in that you are completely wrong about the rules? You had no need to renew your passport for that trip. You travelled before its 10th ‘birthday’ and you had 3 months left before the printed expiry date. It was perfectly valid.

(source: I work in travel dealing exclusively with UK passengers travelling to the EU. I know these rules back to front and upside down).

Stranger things have happened on Mumsnet!

Not without any a very long publicised lead-in before they made a change, and likely a grace period afterwards. It’s vanishingly unlikely they’d change it anyway, but they can’t just wake up the day before you travel and announce it has changed!

This thread is a classic example of why people need to RTFT 🤣 - Groundhog Day of the same incorrect advice and correction over and over