To do my civic duty and say for the love of God check yours and your family’s passports weeks before you go on holiday

[iminmemamscar]

I’ve had 2 friends recently that couldn’t go on their booked holidays because of passport rules (e.g time left on passport), one of whom had got to the gate at the airport and only then was told. He thought he had 6 months left so would be fine, but if flying to the EU you need 10 years from the start date, and his passport was 10 years 6 months from the start date. Every year on MN there’s posts asking for help regarding issues like this - leading to huge amount of anxiety and, often, crushing disappointment
So please, check your passports and the passport rules of the country you’re visiting!

Yes this happened to us with DS’s once and it was awful! I literally just got my new one through this morning - took about a week and a half, brilliant service.

Has happened to one friend already this summer and I have a read a few on here too. So you are doing a public service, us Mums have it tough enough without adding additional drama to our lives

I don’t understand how this happens to people, because despite always checking passports and expiry dates before booking a holiday, I then panic-check them again at least monthly in case I made a mistake! We’re going away next month and DS’s passport expires February 2027, more than 6 months from our return date and it’s EU so he only needs 3 months and that still makes me nervous!

It’s nothing to do with the expiry date anymore, it’s the start date now. That’s where people are getting caught out

I find it so unhelpful how the expiry date is now not, in fact, the expiry date. I still don’t really understand why it’s like this or how it happened.

So you need to have:

At least sixth months left till the expiry date

AND

No more than ten years from the start date.

Is that right?

But how can OPs friend’s passport be 10 years and 6 months from the start date? The whole thing confuses me. And I’d appreciate a really simple explanation for a thickie please.

I honestly can’t understand how people don’t look at this BEFORE booking. Really? We check our passports before booking AND check our dog sitter has availability before booking any holiday away. Even just weekends abroad.

I have our passports in a folder on my phone. Takes less than a minute to look at it.

we also buy annual travel insurance so we’re always covered. Just get top up if we want to do some unusual sport or outing.

why wouldn’t you?

Yes you are correct.
Older uk passports have a lifespan of 10 years 6 months, whereas EU ones don’t. The newer ones have 10 years.
Lots of people will learn this the hard way unfortunately

But do check it from the start date - you need at least 9 years and 6 months from the start date, not necessarily 6 months from the expiry date

Brexit happened.

The EU won’t accept passports older than 10 years from non-EU countries.

Ah ok, thanks for explaining @iminmemamscar. My family and I all have the newer passports as we’ve all renewed within the last couple of years, so does that mean we will now be ok to calculate -6 months from the expiry date without having to look at the start date?

They’re right next to each other on the passport. Why not double check both?!

Thanks, yes I did know about the start date issue and we renewed DH’s old passport “early” for that reason. Mine is newer and they don’t add extra months on anymore, and DS’s is a child passport so the 10 year rule never affects them as they’re only issued for 5 years!

I have looked into this and worked out a failsafe way of never coming unstuck by these passport shenanigans - be poor. Be very poor. Be so poor you can’t afford a holiday.

Follow me for more #winning at life tips!

Mn alerted me on this tg. We’re over ten years but still months left. We’ve got new ones now.

This issue will die out in 2 years time.

The UK had a weird and unique habit of issuing passports with longer than 10 years validity ("unused months") which doesn't match international standards of exactly 10 years validity maximum.

This stopped afaik in 2018, so in 2 years there will be no more anomalous passports which are valid in the UK but invalid elsewhere.

Eddited to add:
This should have quoted
@Waitingfordoggo

Because pre 2018 you could renew your passport early and add on the expired months to the new passport. So your old passport expired October 2017 but you renewed it in January 2017 it would expire in October 2027 (not Jan 2027 as it would with the new rules from 2018) this means going away after Jan 2027 the passport would be over 10 years old so couldn't be used for Europe.

The 'less than ten years old' rule will be irrelevant soon, because that will be the case for all passports. Up until the end of 2018/start of 2019 you could apply for your new passport when you wanted, without losing the time left on your old passport - they would maintain the original expiry date and transfer up to 11 months onto the new one (so your passport could be valid for up to 10 years 11 months).

This meant that if you were well-organised, or travelled a lot, you could get a new passport at a quiet time so you got your new one quickly, without losing time on the passport you were replacing.

By the end of 2028 there should be no one with a passport that is older than ten years, and then we will just need 3 months remaining on the day we are booked to return to Britain (unless we rejoin the EU...).

I think not everyone knows about the ten year thing so they might just believe the expiry date is ok

Because every time I go to check my passport, I’ve forgotten about this rule; and also because I get in a muddle with numbers and dates.

But as I have a very new passport, maybe I don’t need to. It would be easier if I could JUST rely on counting back 6 months from the expiry date. But I’ll just get a proper grown-up to check it for me 😬

Thanks @FourSevenFour- I assumed this would cease to be an issue at some point (because of the length of time since Brexit) so it’s good to know I won’t have to be confused by this again in the future.

Appreciate all the patient explanations, thanks folks.

Thanks OP, off to double check our passports for the eleventy billionth time since booking.... every time I see a thread on mumsnet about it I panic and check, as if the dates would have changed 😆

Before Brexit, If you applied for a renewal of a UK passport 6 months before its expiry, the Passport Office used to add those 6 months onto your new passport.

The EU does not accept non-EU passports that are more than 10 years old. This is why the Passport Office no longer issues passports with more than 10 years validity. Yet another ‘benefit’ of Brexit.

This sounds like an utterly made up problem.

What do you mean? It happened to my friend - turned away at the airport gate with his family because of this