Surprise holiday but passport expired

[Herewegoagain22]

I want to book my my mum a surprise getaway for January next year, abroad. But her passport has expired and I’m not sure how I can keep this a secret until Christmas now, let alone book anything when I know she doesn’t have a valid passport. How can I get her renew? She says she will never go away again so doesn’t need it. But I really need her to do it!!

@Herewegoagain22

I really doubt that you can do this. A valid passport is - of course - essential and I fear that you will simply need to come out with it [and the sooner the better?]

Why don't you suggest she updates her passport with no mention of the holiday?

I can't remember why but I saw something on TV or the news that scared me and I decided at that moment that I'd always have an active valid passport and that my loved ones would too.

Obviously don't scare your Mum! But perhaps find a way to suggest that administratively keeping a valid, active passport is a good idea.

That part is made up of course, but she doesn't need to know that.

Just tell her now what you’re planning.

Your options are
Keep the surprise but book a bit further into next year
Tell her you want to take her abroad next year, let's sort out your passport (don't give specifics, Xmas day surprise)
Tell her she is going to tenderise in Jan, so get the passport

Lol tenderise should be Tenerife

where did I say I’ve done it before? :-)

@pecanroll however, for a family trip I did sort everyone’s travel insurance out. For my grandma we knew what her health conditions were and you can buy a joint policy. I’m not sure why you think it would be so complicated? Let me guess, you’re one of the MNetters that cry about the mental load….

People aren't crossing borders on the basis of a signature...

You can use out of date photo ID to vote as long as it still looks like you.
Or you can use a PASS ID card

I can't honestly remember how I did it now without him realising! To those mentioning a signature he definitely signed the photos himself as his dad's girlfriend at the time was a witness! Maybe it wasn't as secret as I'm remembering? It was in 2017.

No fraud happened though! I didn't do anything illegal.

He thought we were going to Scotland on the train so when the next stop was the airport and I told him we were getting off he was really confused.

Ok according to the website I could do it without a signature as it was done online... but he definitely signed a photo for something! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm so confused! 😂😂

UK voter ID requirements allow you to use an expired passport if the photo is still a decent likeness. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/voter-identification-faqs

If you did a paper application then you'd maybe have needed a photo. You wouldn't need a countersignature for a renewal though unless their appearance had changed drastically

@dementedpixie Maybe that signing was for something else then? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I asked husband but his memory is notoriously awful and all he can remember is me telling him where we were going on the train and being shocked and excited as he'd always wanted to go to Venice.

@Herewegoagain22 she's going to need travel insurance. have you considered this? If she has any treatment pending it could be quite expensive or even impossible to arrange. I think you may need to spill some of the beans a bit earlier

🙄

She did. Unsure why the face. If she did it online she has to tick a box to confirm that it is the applicant applying. I fully understand why given the nature of the surprise but the fact remains the same.

Maybe her mum has a postal vote. No id. required in that case.

@Spirallingdownwards Like I said, whatever I did/however the passport was applied for was 100% legal. If I'd have seen a box that said that I would have given up trying to keep it a secret. My memory is obviously not accurate here if you really can't apply on someone else's behalf. I'm not a law breaker; my dad was a policeman! 😅 I'm also autistic. I literally can't not follow rules.