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

This is like reading a Mensa test

But if you need more than 3 months left on the passport to travel, then most of us are going to be renewing our passports 'early' in order not to be caught out if we need to travel for any reason. This means that surely most of us will have passports that are around 10 years and 4 months in longevity.

So does this mean we cant travel for the first 4 months of a new passport?

Or does it mean that we lose 4 months of a 10 year passport period each 10 years?

I’m saying because of the rule change that I was unaware of, I’m feeling utterly miserable because I know I’ve messed up.

Your child’s father is equally to blame here.

Yep. That’s why the screenshot says “If valid for travel”.

Sorry to be a bit boring but this is actually insurance fraud 😬

I think you lose months each time you renew your passport. So, if your old expiry date was October but you renew in July, then your new expiry date will be July not October.

My kids have dual nationality, so 2 sets of passports. It’s all very expensive. We are getting organized now for our trip next year.

You lose the four months at the end.

So if you renew now, a passport that expires 1 Jan 2023 for example, and it comes back on 1 Sep 2022 (let's be optimistic!), your new passport will have the four months carried over from your current passport the added on so it will expire 1 Jan 2033. But for travel in some countries (not all!) require your passport to have been issued within ten years, meaning you couldn't use it after 1 Sep 2022. Additionally some need you to travel with at least six months validity - so again you couldn't use it after 1 Mar 2032.

So send off your renewal once your current one has run out to get the maximum amount of validity.

Note though different countries have different requirement.

This has been the case since well before Brexit…

I miraculously managed to get my DD one back 5 days after sending. Worth trying. Or there are fast track options..I wrote to the passport office on twitter a lot. I think someone here suggested it. Good luck either way! Bloody Brexit.

Ok, so we're being a bit scammed by losing months off the passport having paid for 10 years,,, but if thats the case how do people end up with passports that are more than 10 years long?

They stopped adding extra months in 2018 so if you renew early you lose any remaining months. New passports are valid for only 10 years

For Europe you used to be able to travel until your expiry date

Sorry people are being so horrid. Internet forums bring out the worst in people. I like to think that if these people saw someone in real life who was facing losing a holiday because of changes to passport rules following exit from the EU, people would show some empathy and not essentially laugh in their faces. I despair of the world today. I'm really sorry OP, I hope you get something sorted.

London or Peterborough (I think) for same day passport! No appointments needed - get there!

Wow thats really bad, so technically using your example dates, someone could lose 9 months of a valid passport.

The problem with renewing once its run out, is as you say you cant travel with only 3 months left (or 6 dependent on country) anyway, so you're losing time somewhere down the line

I am so suprised at how harsh some people are on here.

Especially when they are spouting incorrect information. No help to you OP but it does make me laugh when people are so harsh yet don't know the rules themselves.

No it wasn’t. Before brexit, if travelling within the EU a passport just had to be valid on the date of travel

www.gov.uk/get-a-child-passport/renew-a-child-passport

scroll down and read. I promise you, truly, I was in your position in March and we had no problems. The 6mth rule is for new, blue passports.

i know USA has always wanted 6mth but most other countries do not.

o also discovered, in my panic, the the carrier trumps the country. So if (for example) American Airlines insisted on 12th on a passport but the USA says 6m. The carrier (American Airlines) has the final say.

i know this because I researched what Eurostar rules and Air Canada rules were. Essentially, burgundy passports are more valuable than blue ones. Now DC have blue passports I will have to be more vigilant.

good luck OP

No one is really being scammed. If anything, people were scamming the system by extending their passport's validity. That's now been stopped.

Unless you're a foreign correspondent or do masses of international travel, renewing a passport when the old one expires seems a pretty normal way to go about things!

A guy in work had this exact problem a couple of weeks ago. Weirdly, we were all really sympathetic and no-one told him that it was all his own fault for not knowing. Because we're not nasty and we understand the new rules have caught many people out.

I think it used to be that your passport would be valid until your old expiry date but I’m pretty sure they have changed this now, so all new UK passports are valid for 10 years with no extra months added. It’s only some passports that are affected depending on when you renewed your passport.

OPs child needs 3 months remaining and they will have only around 1 month so their passport is not valid for travel within Europe.

@AgathaMystery - all that means is that the old style passport is still valid. Not that different rules apply. You still need 3 months on it, whatever colour it is.

People didn't scam anything. The extra months were added automatically with no input from the person applying for a passport. The months stopped being added in september 2018 so there will be issues up until september 2028 I suppose.

Well, I think if you need 3 months until the expiry to travel and with the passport chaos this year, most people will renew a few months early, but it is what it is.

I do think a lot of people will have been caught out this year and I think the rules are a bit confusing.

It must be really gutting to get caught out.

You can reschedule your Eurostar journeys if need be.