Passport 10 year rule

[LittleMonks11]

Just a heads up for those planning to travel within the EU under Schengen rules.

I knew about the three month rule (having no less than 3 months on your passport from your return date).

However, it was only reading an article in a travel supplement that I found out about the 10 year rule.

If you have more than 10 years clocked on your passport then you will not be able to enter a EU country. This happens when you renewed your passport before it ran out and you had some extra months on it. I don't think they do it anymore but did pre Brexit.

I checked my husband's passport and it went over 10 years in Feb (we travel to Croatia end of May) so a mad panic to get it renewed.

Didn't bother with the in person appointment as the nearest slot was in Belfast right before we travel. So we've sent it off and have everything crossed it comes back in time!

Thanks Brexit - another wonderful benefit.

I think the OP is confusing things with her wording. This has been all over the news and media since last year (if not a bit before).

Just go to your passport and look at the issue date, add 10 years and this is when your passport becomes no longer valid.

For those struggling to understand, the validity of your passport is exactly ten years from the date it was issued. Ignore the expiry date.
This means that in reality a ten year passport is only valid for travel in some countries for nine years and nine months or nine and a half years in other countries after the issue date.

My last passport was issued in April 2013 and had an expiry date of July 2023 because I had renewed it early. Under the new rules the expiry date became April 2013 but I wouldn't have been able to use it after January.

There were a lot of news stories last year about people being turned away at airports because they didn't understand the new rules.

Thank you for the reminder @LittleMonks11

I think this explains it well

@SconesCreamJamTea until 2018, if you applied for a new passport well before your old one expired, any time still left on your old passport was added to the length of your new one. So say I applied for my new one 6 months before my old one expired, the expiry date on the new one would be 10 years and 6 months after the issue date. You could add on up to 9 months, so someone might have received a passport that was valid for 10 years and 9 months if they applied for a new one 9 months early.

That stopped in 2018, so now passports are for 10 years exactly, even if you applied months early. But there are people who still have those older passports with more that 10 years between the issue and expiry date on them. The EU only accept passports that have been issued within the last 10 years, so if you are one of the those people who had the extra months added on, those extra months (showing on the expiry date) don't count and as far as the EU are concerned, your passport expires exactly 10 years after the start date instead.

How is this still catching people out? So many threads about it! I have a EU passport, but I'm still aware of this rule

@Mojitosaremyfavourite

Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months from when you enter South Africa, so you will need to check that.

South Africa isn't in the EU so the 10 year rule doesn't apply. You need 6 months remaining on your passport to travel there though

My expiry and issue date seem to be the same though. My passport was due to run out in July but I renewed it in March. My old passport was the same.

@dementedpixie the issue date should be on his passport x

They stopped adding extra months in September 2018 so any issued after that date are only valid for 10 years. It also depended if you had extra months left on the old passport as if you replaced it quite late then there wouldn't be extra months to add.

3 months is for Schengen. Some countries may require 6 months.

Glad I saw this! Mine expires June 24 but was actually issued Feb 24 so there was me thinking I wouldn’t need to renew until next year, but looks like I will need to do it later this year instead!!

The issue day is above the expiry date.

Look at this photograph.

My passport was issued in November 2014
The expiry date is June 2025

In the past you could apply for your passport early and have up to 9 months from the old passport added to your new one. It meant you could avoid the stress of applying at busy times and worrying about processing times, but without losing time on your passport.

But that's changed.

Your passport is now only valid for 20 years from date of issue.

So my passport is now only valid until Nov 2024.

However, if I want to travel to Europe - it needs to have 3 months left, so that takes it to August 2024. And for some countries further afield it is 6 months - meaning I need to renew it even earlier, before May 2024.

I think anyway - anyway, I will be renewing it in late winter/spring next year as a result. I will probably sort it earlier rather than later, to avoid potential passport delays. And to avoid February/Easter holidays as not yet decided when I will go away next year yet.

Ooh, I remember,her reading this actually and need to check.
If definitely not an issue - it means I can leave renewing until after the summer next year, before an October half term break maybe.

@Qilin the 10 year validity only affects travel in Europe. If travelling to different areas it will be valid until its printed expiry date. You may have to have 6 months remaining on it rather than 3 months though. It's best to check each destination for their entry requirements

It was news to me last month, and evidently news to others. Not everyone sees/reads everything at the same time. I didn't read anything about it until recently.

Apologies for any confusion about when the rules changed.

OP is right to highlight this as not everyone will know despite it being addressed by the media

@Qilin has the best explanation with the photo as an example

It will come up every year until the passports with the extra months have all expired which will not be until 2028/2029.

Yes - I'd forgotten I'd read the 3/6 month think can take into account the extended expiry. When it was first announced it was quite vague on that but but was clarified since:

We always check as fly long haul a fair amount so used to the sixth month aspect.