Unsure whether passport is in date or not

[Cheeseandonioncrisp]

Hi,

I have a few abroad European trips over the next couple of months and I'm getting a bit confused about passport requirements. I understand that you need 6 months left on your passport and also your passport needs to be less than 10 years old but do those 6 months need to be within that 10 year period? Hopefully that makes sense...

So my passport expires Oct 2025, and my passport will be 10 years old in Jan 2025. I am going to Europe in Sept this year - is my passport in date for that trip?

Thanks in advance!

It needs 3 months left for Europe (use the expiry date) and your passport can’t be issued more than 10 years ago so yours is fine.

Your passport must:
a) have been issued less than 10 years before the date you enter the EU country (ie the “date of issue”); and

b) must be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave (ie the “date of expiry”).

Those are separate requirements, so yes you're fine.

I would of said you need a new one if you return from holiday in October before the day of the expiry date in January because of the 10 year rule but im open to being corrected if i am wrong

Passport needs to be under ten years old on date of entry, with 3 months left before expiry date on date of exit (for Europe)

The 2 rules are separate. Passport must have 3m left and be less than 10 years old but the 3m don't have to be induced in the 10 years. So basically you can use your current passport until January.

In September 2024 your passport will be under 10 years old (as it is 10 years old in January 2025)

Your passport will have 3 months remaining when you leave as it expires in October 2025.

You're wrong. See the official Government guidance:

Schengen area rules. Your passport must:

• have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive – if you renewed your passport before 1 October 2018, it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago
• have an ‘expiry date’ at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area

Phew! Thanks everyone, sounds like it'll be fine.

As PP have said, you are fine. Here is the text from the actual EU rule, whose full title is "Regulation(EU) 2016/399", aka the "Schengen borders code". This is literally what the immigration officer will have in front of them when you arrive (albeit translated).

There were some hiccups a couple of years ago with clueless ground staff at the UK end telling people their passports were not valid, but after having to pay large amounts of compensation to people who were denied boarding for their holidays, all of the airlines and handling companies are now fully up to speed.

I have recently heard of someone whose passport was fine (it was less than 10 years old, and there were more than 3 months before it expired).. but they were turned away at a ferry terminal (UK to Netherlands ferry). The ferry company was wrong but the staff wouldn't accept the explanations (as given above in this thread).
If you are ferrying it might be worth checking with the operator as this happened about 2 weeks ago!