Passport expires in a month-can we still go on holiday?

[1000Stars]

Hi,
My son has an Irish passport that expires at the end of September. We were hoping to go on last minute holiday for a week, but I'm really confused about the rules. The Irish embassy states that any EU passport holder has the right to travel to other EU countries as long as the passport is valid for the duration of stay with no additional validity required, i.e. 6 months after the departure date. However, when I was looking at the Spanish government website, it states EU passport holders need an additional 3 months of validity after their departure date. It seems so confusing, and I don't want to book a holiday unless I'm certain we can go. I have contacted the travel agents, and they also said they were unsure and found the information confusing. Can anyone help?
Thanks

It's dependent on the visiting country and their regulations at the time.
Most of the EU countries seem to require the passport to be valid for a minimum of 3 months after your holiday is over.
You can go here to find a list of countries and their Passport requirements.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Whenever I've been to Spain, Turkey etc the booking has stated my passport needs to be valid for 3 or 6 months after the date of my return, I'd order him a new one

Just try get it renewed for safety.

https://www.dfa.ie/travel/travel-advice/a-z-list-of-countries/spain/

If he’s travelling on an Irish passport from Ireland no extended validity is needed. I don’t think the fact he’s travelling from the U.K. makes any difference - he could easily just be transiting here.

Before EU exit there was no additional validity required to travel to Spain. Now we have the 10 year rule and the additional validity requirement.

Not sure about Turkey because it’s not in the EU.

Some airlines and travel agents tried to make up their own rules though.

Officially no but even before we left the eu certain countries were stating 3 months. I would renew today to be safe

Dh came back from Spain just before the 3 months expiry date on his passport back in May and they reminded him at border control that he was coming very close to the date of renewal.

The Spanish sources aren’t brilliantly clear but I’m tending to agree with @WiseUpJanetWeiss ..

Top of the link below is with respect to those carrying passports of third status nations and clearly states the need for extended validity (so that’s British passport holders, regardless of point of origin)..

Further down the page for EU nationals it states:

“Citizens of the Member States of the European Union, and citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, may enter Spain with their national identity card or with a valid passport.” No mention of extended validity being required….

Can’t say the page is brilliantly sub-divided though so there’s still a bit of a ?

https://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/londres/en/ServiciosConsulares/Paginas/Consular/Condiciones-de-entrada-en-Espana.aspx#:~:text=Documents%20to%20present%20at%20the%20border%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8B&text=Valid%20passport%20or%20travel%20document,before%20the%20date%20of%20entry.

The online passport renewal service is very speedy. I had mine in less than 24 hours!

We didn't leave the EU.

Personally I wouldn't take the risk of travelling anywhere without at least 6 months on my passport.

I don’t know any country where you don’t need at least 3 months left- just renew

Before EU exit there was no additional validity required to travel to Spain. Now we have the 10 year rule and the additional validity requirement.

What EU exit? Ireland is still in the EU unless I've missed something really big!

At the airport local to us, inside the EU, pre-Brexit, border officials definitely did not require three months validity on UK passports but they might have asked a few more questions than normal about travellers plans if the expiry date was imminent.

That's entirely iaw with the EU crossing internal border rules and AFAIK it's how arrivals from ROI are still handled here, since the ROI is still in the EU.

UK passport holders are now subject to extended validity requirements due to third nation status.

If he is travelling on his EU passport then it’s fine.

Mine was due for renewal October 2023. I flew to Spain in July 2023 so got it renewed. I did it online and had it in 10 working days, really straightforward process for renewals.

OP if you do decide to renew be aware that children’s passports take longer than adults’. My son’s took 2-3 weeks to come back earlier this year. Make sure whatever witness you use is freely able to take phone calls as I think that can slow things down.

We travelled to portugal recently and one of the dc passports expired the day after we returned. All travelling on irish passports, but leaving from the North, no hassle at all. You can apply for renewal of kids passport and don't have to send the old one away, the new one might arrive in time. Either way you should be grand.

We had this. DHs had run out a year prior and while we were applying for his we realised that DDs would have 2 months left on departure. Just to be on the safe side we got her a new one.

The USA requires passports to be valid on the day you leave.

For U.K. passport holders obviously.

For U.K. passport holders obviously.

OP's first sentence - her dc has an Irish passport. She has posted in Craicnet. It's irrelevant what UK passport holder have.

As I understand it, travelling on an EU passport to another EU country you're fine right up until the day it expires. Are you travelling direct from Ireland to Spain? If not, I guess you might fall foul of UK airports/ports not being clear in the EU rules.

I was responding to another post that said:

Whenever I've been to Spain, Turkey etc the booking has stated my passport needs to be valid for 3 or 6 months after the date of my return, I'd order him a new one

I even quoted it.

If you live in the UK I've found the passport people at the Irish Embassy in London really helpful and pretty quick to respond via email.