18yo Daughter with Child passport

[PheonixBlayne81]

As titled, we are due to go on holiday to Spain on 4th June however our daughter turns 18 at the end of May, she currently has a child passport that is valid until 2026, Shes also now has dyed long hair, piercings and doesnt look the same as the picture. Should we think about getting her an adult passport or is the one we have fine, Just abit worried we'll get to the check in desk and be turned away or at worst get to Spain and be turned back by the Spainish passport control. Any thoughts?

If she doesn’t look like her photo then why not just apply for a new passport? You’ve got plenty of time. Then you can enjoy looking forward to your holiday instead of stressing about it.

It'll be fine. My 17 and 15 year olds have passports that will expire when they're twenty. It's normal. Don't worry!

I bet she's more recognisable than when she was five and she had her baby photo in her passport!!!

It’ll be fine as long as it’s valid. I don’t think there is such a thing as a child passport as such, just that if under 16 at application it can only last a max of 5 years

I wouldn't renew with so much time still left on it.
Her biometrics won't have changed

Child passports last 5 years. If she'll be 20 when it expires I'm guessing she was 15 when she got the passport? It's not like there's a photo of a 10 year old in it then.

It's up to you. You have time to renew and the passport office will add the unspent years to the new one, so you won't be missing out.

They don't add extra months now. Think they stopped doing that in 2018

I think technically you are supposed to get a new passport if you are not recognizable from the photo on the current passport, even if it's not expired.

They mean drastic changes not longer hair and piercings

They won't do that, extra years stoped quite a while ago

Personally I'd keep the passport until it expires but I'm a meanie and passports aren't cheap

She'll look more like her photo than you think at the moment.

Facial recognition works irrespective of length/colour of hair, and the presence of piercings does not alter the size/shape of features, the spacing of your eyes, length of nose etc. So unless she's had a really major growth spurt in the last 3 years (during which her skull might have grown in ways that affect the features) I think she'll be OK

My 18 year old daughter's current passport runs out when she's 20. In the past year she's travelled on it 3 times without any bother. To me she looks different from her photo, but I always think that about official type ID photos. She's always changing her hair, piercings.

There has been a lot of worry about passport validity post-Brexit, and the EU rules can be a bit complex as a passport comes up to its expiry date, but there's no need to worry on this point. If the passport says it's valid until 2026, it's valid until 2026. There is no "gotcha" hidden extra date. The computer that issued it knew that her 18th birthday was coming up and didn't go "beep", so it's fine.

When you get to Spain the first checks will probably be done by e-gates, which measure various proportions of the face to some degree of precision. It's very unlikely that any human will look at the picture. And to refuse someone entry on the basis that they no longer look completely like their picture is basically unheard of, unless there are other reasons to suspect fraud. Don't worry, enjoy your holiday.

Piercings and different hair aren't an issue.