Passport validity

[whensmynexthol1day]

Hi everyone. Just looking for views on best course of action relating to my daughter’s passport. We are squashing quite a bit of travel into the summer period and don’t have an obvious gap to get her passport renewed.
the official rules from what I understand is that a passport must be no older than 10 years from date of issue and if travelling in Europe then it needs 3 months validity from the date of travel. I have seen the many press reports though of people being denied boarding where they have less than 6 months.
her passport expires 15 feb 2027 and we are away may half term, two weeks end July/ beginning of August and then the last two weeks of August returning 30 August . So not much less than the 6 months some people think is the rules.

what would you do? I have a few options I think

1. risk renewing it in the gap between may half term and the start of summer hols (7 weeks)
2. risk that the airlines do indeed know the rules (we are flying jet 2 on the last trip)
3. renew in feb (we are also abroad seeing family in Feb half term) - this gives us a much bigger window but I’m not even sure if you can renew a whole year in advance!

appreciate I’m silly for not having thought about this when we booked but we are where we are!

any advice welcome!

I would renew it Dec 2026/Jan 2027 then that leaves plenty of time

Option 1. Seven weeks should be plenty of time.

I'd do it as soon as you get back from the May holiday. 7 weeks is plenty.

@whensmynexthol1day "the official rules from what I understand is that a passport must be no older than 10 years from date of issue and if travelling in Europe then it needs 3 months validity from the date of travel."

You've slightly misunderstood the rules - if travelling to Europe (Schengen) the passport needs to be less than 10 years old (see the Issue date) on the date of travel and have at least 3 months remaining from the date of leaving the Schengen area (see the Expiry date).

"I have seen the many press reports though of people being denied boarding where they have less than 6 months."

Hopefully not in the last half year or so. These rules have been in place for almost 5 years and while some airlines (or rather, some individual agents at the departure desk) indeed minunderstood the rules initially, the issue should by now have been resolved. Jet 2 is a major airline operator and should by now have corrected their procedures and information.

Renew it Nov 26 then it will be back in plenty of time,

@Havananananamy understanding was the same as yours I’ve just articulated it badly! My concern is really the horror stories of airlines not understanding the rules but reassuring you think they have all got there on understanding.
would be good to know if anyone has any experiences to the contrary in recent periods. Tempted to maybe email jet2 and get their confirmation to show to any misinformed airport staff but no idea whether they’d even bother to reply…

@whensmynexthol1day

You missed Option 4 - just renew after the summer holiday or any time up until when the passport reaches 10 years from the issue date. Unless you have more travel plans there's no real need to renew before the passport is 10 years old (you haven't posted the Issue Date in the OP) and renewal only takes a few days. October and November are very quiet times for passport renewals and turnaround times are usually really quick.

Which horror stories ? Are you saying people who work for jet 2 or wherever are unable to understand an important passport requirement 🤔

When is the issue date?

@Havanananana well yes but that assumes that you’re right that airlines do now know the rules and @Coffeeishot there have been loads of press articles about airlines getting this wrong so yes I’m concerned!

@letshavetea it’s 15 Feb. Same as expiry. So the issue where in older times you could get up to six months extra isn’t my concern (probably should have left out the ten year bit as that is a red herring).

I can't say i have seen it but you go ahead email jet 2 i am sure they will welcome the feedback.

Are you travelling 2026 or is this for 2027? if 2027, I'd just renew 6 months before February 2027.

You are quite right to be concerned about employees who don´t know what they should know. Just last month I was reading an example of this. The person in question even had to phone the Spanish embassy in the Netherlands and have them confirm that the document they were travelling with was a perfectly legal document. There is always one.

@Isobel201. 2026

You can renew as early as you like. DH renewed his a full four years early once(misread the expiry date)

If relevant OP, DH posted his old passport off between Christmas and New years just gone, and got it back within a week! Maybe its a very quiet time at the passport office, or the turn around times are better now- but he was very impressed!

I'm assuming your daughter is a child and so the 10 years isnt relevant but where you're going is as it may be you only need 3 months

If your dd has a child passport then its valid for 5 years so it will always meet the requirement to be under 10 years old when you enter the EU.

The passport needs 3 months remaining from the date you leave the EU so the passport is well within that with a February 2027 expiry.

Id renew sometime after Christmas depending on when it might be needed again.

I renewed my passport a couple of weeks ago. Posted it back on the Tuesday and filled in forms online and I had it Saturday morning. Just normal service.

you should be okay then, just renew during the winter sometime.

renew now? It only takes 1-2 weeks

also, check the website of the airlines you are flying with. They usually have a passport validity calculator

https://www.tui.co.uk/passport-checker

Why would you renew now when the passport is valid for travel to the EU as long as you exit by 15 November 2026? (this leaves the 3 months remaining that you require)