Are we leaving without a deal on Jan 31st?

[wonderstuff]

Dd will have less than 6 months on her passport at Feb half term when we're going to Holland. The Gov.uk website says if we leave without a deal you'll need at least 6 months on your passport to travel in the EU. Dh thinks that transition arrangements mean we'll be fine for our February trip. I'm confused.

why risk it, just get a new one

You probably need to heed to government advice, rather than your husband, on this occasion.

Get a new passport.

But the government advice is "if we leave without a deal" are we leaving without a deal?

So I've just done some research. We'll probably leave with a deal, but its not yet been passed through all stages in parliament or been approved by the EU, that will probably happen by the end of the month, but as we travel in 4 weeks we need to renew it. How bloody annoying. (Wonders off muttering darkly about bloody Cameron).

You can renew online, and depending on your DD’s age / how much she has changed you may need to get photos countersigned, so I’d do it ASAP.

She's 12 so all straightforward, all online, £49 and I just need to source a suitable envelope and send the old one off (always hate doing that, worry it'll get lost. .)

31 Jan is just the date we leave, almost certainly with the WA approved
So we will almost certainly be leaving WITH a deal

However, that is just the EXIT Deal, not the future trade deal
and also, there is still a very small change that either the HoC or the European Parliament won't approve the WA after all.

From 1 Feb, there will be an 11 months transition period - in which everything should stay about the same -
during which the govt will try to negotiate a future trade deal
That would be at best a bare bones deal, which would mean a lot of changes from 1 January 2021, including very probably the passport rules.

So for your immediate question:
it is very unlikely to affect her passport for your vacation in February, but there is still a v small risk

There's an eleven month transition from Feb 1 when current arragements remain.

After that, it could be bingo or bollocks, no one knows.

Thanks BigChoc yes this is what I've decided, if we were travelling in March I'd leave it a while but as it is by the time we had certainty it would be quite late for a passport app so I'm renewing it.
Dh feels it's so likely to be fine we shouldn't bother, but I never imagined we'd be here, I'm not going to chance it.

You can send the old passport back Signed For (although that just gives you a signature at the end, not tracking), and if you’ve signed up for text updates you’ll get a text to say when it’s been received.

TBH as she’s 12 renewing a few months early won’t make much difference in the scheme of things - she’ll be getting a full 10 yr adult passport at next renewal anyway.

Yeah and it runs out in July so I'd have to do it in a couple of months anyway. Good that they send a text when received.