Will Eurostar let us home 4 days after daughter's passport expires?

[Garon]

From searching the forum there are obviously a lot of us in similar situations. We travel on Sunday to Germany by train for 3 weeks and 10-yr-old daughter's passport runs out 4 days before we come back. Passport office say no way can we get a replacement in time. Eurostar says they wouldn't risk it, they might not even get to go out as they might ask to see our return tickets given the expiry date's so close. And then she might not be allowed back with the expired passport. What do you think? Has anyone done it and been let through? Or been stuck in France? The concern is over child trafficking and abductions but she'll be with both her parents - I can take a copy of the birth certificate?!?
Any advice gratefully received!

Not quite the same but my in-laws got back with the ferry without passports at all (they were lost staying with us) they did have photo id though in the form of a bus pass......

I also know of people who've travelled with expired child passports and no-one has noticed at atll - also by ferry.

not sure how much more stringent Eurostar is - the passports seem to always be scanned at the ferry so they should pick these things up....

where in Germany are you going? If you get out- you could always see if you could get to the consulate for an emergency travel doc for way back - there's def on in Dusseldorf.

if it were me I'd probably try to travel anyway......

have you read this?

I'd risk it. The alternative is to cancel your holiday or to change the return date.

I'd take the birth certificate, print out a couple of recent news articles showing what a pickle the passport office is in, and if they notice do some grovelling.
OR feign total surprise and that you really didn't notice, so sorry, could they make an exception to let you travel home please.

Good luck!

It's not up to Eurostar.
There will be French/Belgian border police, and then UK immigration a few steps later, and they will both check your passport- ime they check carefully.

French police might let you through as far as UK immigration and have them deal with you, but equally they might refuse and make you contact the British Embassy. And then you would have missed your train, even though I am sure they would sort it out for you.

I would personally just come home 4 days early.

Will you not need a certain amount of time left on the passport to enter the country? That would be more of sticking block I think.

Can't you just change your ticket to 4 days earlier ?

Bruffin the UK is not part of Schengen.

I wouldn't risk it, I would come home four days earlier.

Within EU you can travel any time up to the passport expiry date, only non EU countries stipulate 3 or 6 months beyond .

What's the worst that could happen? You have an extra day in France (presumably, depending where they check the passport) to sort it out. That's probably cheaper than trying to change your date of travel...

Thanks for the replies - think we will try the birth certificate and news stories idea! We could try to come back earlier but it might not be easy, we've got night train + bike spaces from Munich to Paris then Eurostar+bike spaces to London. Seems crazy if I could get it sorted out by a British consulate abroad in a day but not in London in 3 days! Still obviously stupid of us not to check... Maybe we should go to the consultate in Munich when we arrive.

Passport people said it just needed to be in date, didn't need extra time on it. useful to know that Hungary and Slovakia are in Shengun agreement, as we might be crossing those borders too, although I'm not sure what else she could use as ID...

Enjoy your holiday, sounds fantastic! (Not at all, noooo )

The worst that could actually happen is that they won't let you back in to the uk. I imagine they will, but technically...

I would say worst that could happen is that they don't let you travel out in the first place.
Fingers crossed for you...

I've always been told you need 6mths of passport validity left to be able to travel at all. So you may not even get out of the country!

Within EU you need only validity for proposed duration of stay.

So yes there is a possibility that someone whose passport expires before the return leg will be refused boarding. I have no idea how likely that is. But if it happens, DD will be unable to travel (as UK is non-Schengen and alternative docs won't be accepted) and someone will have to stay with her. If you can get an emergency passport, you might be able to join up for the latter part of the holiday.

I think it is quite likely that the expiry will be spotted on the return leg. You might find that DD plus an adult is stuck in France whilst an emergency travel document is sorted out. I don't know how long that takes. Nor if it is ever possible for Borders officials to accept anything other than a valid passport.

We live in France and travelled to the UK for Christmas. In Calais the British border control pointed out that DS's passport had expired. I may have sworn in surprise When I asked what we should do the lovely man said he'd phone his boss. Five minutes later he said that we could continue our journey.

I asked him if we'd have trouble getting back and he replied that since DS is French it would be highly unlikely that the border guards wouldn't let a French national back into France.

I would go, I think you'll be fine. I came back on the ferry once with no passport at all, they weren't even interested in hearing why I didn't have a passport.

If you manage to get out there, you could 'discover' that your ds's passport is out of date, then go and ask the consulate in Munich for emergency permission to travel documents, which would get you home.

Do you have time to book an appointment at a passport office, to do the renewal? If you ring up and beg, you might get an appointment in time, and the passport is produced on the same day.

No appointments available until August! Also they said that they won't do children's passports in a day now because of child abduction and trafficking concerns.
yes main concern is that they won't let us on in the first place. Eurostar said that was possible. I think I'll say we're planning to change our journey back when we get to Germany and I will try the Munich consulate idea.
Thanks for the ideas and thanks zimbomaman - that's the sort of story I'm looking for!

Problem solved! Just got this reply from consulate in Munich
"You will be very pleased to know that we are able to stamp your daughter’s passport to give it a year’s extra validity due to the passport office backlog! This means that you will not need an Emergency Travel Document costing €123. The stamp is free and you can travel to most countries in the world with it (including the UK, of course)"
Hooray! Thanks mumsnetters!

Glad to hear that!

We went through a week of stress getting BIL's passport sorted - he left it too late, and was supposed to be going to France with his mum, my MIL, who is terminally ill, with maybe not much time left - the holiday was very special to her and him. Luckily the Passport Office listened to his story, and fast-tracked his passport, so he could go - but it is a week I wouldn't want to go through again!

Sound like passport office were good that time - but I can't believe they didn't know I could sort it out this easily!

Wow Talk about German efficiency...

That's great news. Bon voyage .