Passports

[Bananamama22]

just wondering if anyone knows the definitive answer to this…my passport has extra months on it, expires Oct 2023, Issued March 2013.

Looking to understand if the 3 month/6 months rule applies backwards from the 10 year date or the actual printed expiry date? For example is it 6 months back from Oct 2023 or 6 months from March 2023 (when it turns ten?)

My understanding is three months before March.

Or six months if your airline has decided this is the rule.

You need to ignore anything after March 2023. Think of that as the expiry date and calculate any required months back from there.

Thanks all. That’s what I thought, but everything I can find says ‘look at expiry date’.

I have exactly the same confusion, passport expires August 2023 but was issued November 2012.

The updated government guidance suggests that the three/six month count back should be from the printed expiry date (Aug 2023 in my case) as it specifically says check the expiry date.

It then specifies that the passport needs to be less than 10 years old on the date you enter the country you are travelling to and to use the issue date to check this.

BUT most people I speak to disagree and think the three/six month count back should also be started from issue date +10 years.

Result is that I am confused and have no idea how to verify which is correct… or whether my passport is ok for travel in August this year…

I know just what you mean - the wording implies that your passport would be valid for travel, but given that the whole thing is about passports not being valid for longer than ten years I suspect it is the case that you have a better grasp of English than the person who wrote the guidance and your passport expires in November 22.

You need three months remaining from the date of return, so depending on when you are travelling and the issue date you may still be able to travel on it (if it was issued at the end of November and you are travelling back in the middle of August, for example), but do check with your airline because it seems Ryanair think that you need six months when you don't and being right won't necessarily help you get on the plane!!!

Ryanair staff have been further advised of the actual requirements.

The only tests on the day you travel:
Was your passport issued in the past 10 years?
Does it have three months validity remaining after your intended return date?
These conditions are independent of each other.

But is the validity measured against the actual printed expiry date (Aug 2023) or when the passport becomes more than 10 years old at the beginning of November 2022?

That’s the bit that is confusing…

I think I may have found the answer!

Passports only last 10 years now so any additional months after the passport has its tenth birthday are to be disregarded.

There needs to be more than three months remaining on your passport from the date of departure to the date the passport turns 10.

So OP you passport turns 10 in March, so you need three clear months before that date. Personally I'd renew now

I decided to renew, application sent off a week ago. No idea if it will come back before August, but decided not even planning/booking a holiday is preferable to being turned away at check in!