Passport - help

[plard]

Panicked on Friday as checking in for holiday departing 7th May that my passport wasn’t valid. Made a 1 week fast track online application with appt tomorrow.
calmed down over weekend and did loads of research and I now think it is valid. Rather than rely on Royal Mail to deliver to me 1 week + 1 day (as it’s bank hol) giving me 1 days grace, I rang passport office today to explain and say I wanted to withdraw my application and cancel appt.
got that done and sent the email to confirm that they needed. It’ll take 2 days to process apparently.
my main concern now and absolutely no definitive info anywhere is will my existing passport be valid and not cancelled once the withdrawal is processed?
is there any where I can check that my passport is active? Will hmpo be able to tell me?
biggest lesson I’ve learnt is do not panic because it’s Friday and time is running out.
should add I have a red passport with months added on which caused be unnecessary panic - my bad

I’m impressed you actually managed to speak to anyone at the passport office ! You can only try and call back in a couple of days time to ask for confirmation but I think in your case to save the worrying I would just have continued with my new application to save any panic. I don’t honk there is any online way of checking if it’s still valid.

when you say the confusion was the months added on I asusme you are travelling to Europe and therefore realise that any additional months over the 10 years are not allowed ?

Yep should have just done tbe 6 hours round trip in hindsight and got the new passport but still relying on Royal Mail which is scary - terrible service where I live.
Issue date 10 June 2016, expiry 10 feb 2027.
im travelling 7-14th May so it is valid.

Where are you travelling to?

Greece

I could be wrong. But my understanding is that if the issue date is 10th June 2016, the expiry will be 10 June 2026. The extra months no longer count. I got caught out by this.

most countries need 3 months on the passport from date of exit. So you may still need that appointment.

Issue date 10 June 2016, expiry 10 feb 2027.
im travelling 7-14th May so it is valid.

10 years from issue date is 10 June 2026 so its definitely valid on 7th May 2026
Expiry of 10 Feb 2027 means it has more than 3 months remaining when you leave

Who told you it wasn't valid?

ive been told the 2 rules are separate so at time of entry passport must be less than 10 years from issue. And 2nd rule is must have 3 months left on passport at time of exit (this is checked against the expiry date which remains as is and doesn’t reduce to the 10 year thing)

Her passport has an expiry of Feb 2027 so is perfectly valid. The 10 year thing only applies for entry into the EU. The 3 months remaining is calculated from the actual expiry not the 10 years calculated from the issue date

Nobody. I read the checks as I was checking in and the valid for 3 months wasn’t clear if it linked to the issue date. Spent 5 mins googling and nothing conclusive so booked the renewal. I said it was a panic response!
calm head and I can see it’s valid.
I just need to establish if fast track application will leave my passport cancelled even thought I’ve withdrawn the application

i spoke to someone a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t difficult at all.
Post office managed to lose my passport AND birth cert AND marriage cert….🤦‍♀️

have you actually submitted a passport application or just booked - and now cancelled - an appointment?

Your guess is as good as mine. I followed the instructions for a 1 week fast track application online. Put in some details, didn’t seem many, and it let me pick an appt at the end. You have to go and take your passport with you. So no idea how far or what gets processed prior to the meeting.

Your passport isn’t cancelled until you turn up for the appointment.

I had to get mine urgently renewed in December after I went to check in and realised, exactly the same as you.

When I was at the appointment the guy confirmed with me that I was definitely ok for him to cancel my existing passport as I can’t change my mind once he’s done it. He then cut the corner off it.

Thank you. That makes me feel better!