Due to travel on Sunday, just found out 5 year old sons passport isn’t valid due to brexit HELP

[Shinebright21]

So due to travel to France and Italy via rail from this Sunday.

Mine, my husband and daughters passport are all valid. My sons expires on 31st July and I was under the impression you can travel, until the expiry date and we are back way before then.

Do we cancel and use our insurance to claim the money back, or just risk it and go and see what happens at the border?

Feeling utterly miserable

I actually think you still needed some time to be on the passport on your return to your EU country of origin pre-Brexit, though definitely not as much as you do now.

Pretty sure you didn’t - as an EU citizen your passport was valid for travel in the EU up to and including the expiry date.

Now we’re third country nationals.

You didn't need time remaining prior to brexit. Since leaving the EU we need 3 months as UK is now a 3rd country

Now we’re third country nationals. hardly.
We’re allowed to stay for three months without visas or checks so they are simply making sure your passport is also valid for that long.
Saves extra faff.

I flew with my DD with less than a week left on her passport to Cyprus 5 five years ago. It was in date, it was valid. We could stay as long as we wanted. (It was then renewed through the Overseas process)

5 years ago we were in The EU

Both myself and DH travelled within the EU Pre Brexit with less than 3 months on our passports
Once I had less than a week on mine after my return date when I travelled to Portugal

I was feeling quite calm about everything - gutted but calm. Prepared to be turned away until my other half decided to mention plan B. He wants to go away somewhere in the UK.

Why the heck do we want to spend money on somewhere in the UK? It rains, hailstones, snows in the space of a day, and it’s absolutely shit here. I’d rather just accept that we haven’t been able to travel and just wait for some sunny days, to plan some days out over the summer.

I can’t think of plan B, we planned and booked this holiday with so much excitement - I can’t accept second best that’s not me. I’d rather wait till I can do it again.

Good luck!! I hope you make it through.

Fingers crossed for you!

Of course you can blame Brexit. You could travel until your passport expired when we were in the EU. You didn't need the extra 3 months.

Yeah well if you’re blaming Brexit, I’m blaming the EU in the first place. I remember travelling in 1980’s when just waving a black passport at the French border got you through. Even an expired one was fine as no one checked.
It was only checked properly when the EU bought in burgundy passports that meant we needed to be scanned and scrutinised.

People have always had passports that ran out before travel, Brexit or no Brexit. There was scramble for passports every summer pre Brexit as I’m sure threads on here will show.

Hah! We are absolutely third country nationals because the UK is a third country, according to the EU’s definition:

The EU defines a third country as: “A country that is not a member of the European Union as well as a country or territory whose citizens do not enjoy the European Union right to free movement”.

You sound like you dont know what a third country national is

We are a third country

It just goes to show the level of ignorance that prevails amongst those who are still eager to defend Brexit. There are quite basic concepts that they simply don't seem to understand. It's no wonder that we have ended up in the mess that we're in.

Where I am the weather has been fab! Don't be downhearted you can have some great Uk holidays

I've followed this thread from the beginning and was entirely sympathetic... until that post.

unusually this coming week is predicted to be a scorcher.

and anyway, you can always rebook france/italy so i lost sympathy aaaages ago.

Facebook passport group has loads of folk turning up with less than 48hrs to fly and getting their passports. There were even people booking fake cheap flights to exploit this? If you have proof of flights

Ffs just read latest update.

@Anothernamechangeplease I understand what a third country national is. The “hardly” was reference to the way it was posted as something derogatory.

Can I just point out that I’m not the one knocking the woman without 3 months left. I’m saying lots of people had passports they couldn’t travel with even before Brexit because people forgot to check dates. You know “ a basic concept” 😉. That’s the “ignorance” of the public and to think stupid is just the prerogative of one set of voters.

Me too. Don't know where you are, but it is certainly not 'shit!'.

I understand what a third country national is. The “hardly” was reference to the way it was posted as something derogatory.

@lightisnotwhite, that makes no sense at all. Either you didn't know what a "third country national" means, or you don't know how to use the word "hardly" correctly.

You also seem to have a problem with your reading comprehension. There was nothing in @Dreikanter's post that was derogatory. It was a simple statement of fact.

Oh whatever.
Its an oversight by the Op. Like people have being doing with their passports forever. And it’s also true that getting over to France was much easier pre EU passports. I don’t spend time moaning about it though.
Hopefully the Op will get to go somewhere. Jerseys nice and the weather is a bit better.

I understand what a third country national is. The “hardly” was reference to the way it was posted as something derogatory.

In my opinion, being a third country national is certainly a step backwards for any UK citizen that wants to visit for an extended time / live / work in an EU country.

Still, it was apparently what a minority of the UK electorate wanted in 2016 so we’re stuck with it.

And I seem to remember when going to France still having to show my old style passport at border control before the machine readable ones were introduced in 1988 (which were brought in to be in line with the ICAO not the EU).