HELP! Flying out tomorrow ,passport expires in July 2026

[Potterxoxo]

Hi all,

Bit of a panic here and hoping someone has been through something similar.
Just realised my 6 year old’s British passport expires July 2026 and we’re flying to Albania tomorrow from London, coming back on 13 June 2026.

I’ve read that Albania needs 3 months validity left after you leave and now I’m worried we might not be allowed to travel.

Has anyone actually been in this situation? Did you get stopped at check in or were you still allowed to go?
I’m just trying to work out how strict this really is in real life,a part of me hopes miraculously they will let us through.
Any experiences would really help !

I've made the same mistake with a kid's passport op. These things happen to the best of us.

Luckily I realised with a week to go. We got an appointment with the Passport Office in London so dh had to travel there and ds's new passport arrived 3 days later.

I hope you get to enjoy some of your trip.

Wishing you so much luck and hope you can fly again soon.
@Galvanized nasty for no reason. So many resins people miss school

What a nightmare, exactly the kind of thing I'd do (and have done similar!) - that heart sinking moment when you realise what's happened is awful... I really hope you can salvage at least some of your holiday.

They Obviously didn’t check or they wouldn’t be in this situation. Stop asking stupid questions

Your husband and son can go. You stay since you’re the one who didn’t check the passport.
Do the passport application today. It only took 4 days to get my kid’s passports when I applied for their first ones.
As soon as you get the passport, book flights for you and your daughter that day and head out.

So the husband did check the passport?...

People will ask because some of us find it simply not believable that this wasn’t checked at the time the holiday was booked and planned for. Even if I “know they’re fine” I still check to make sure. Yet there is a thread on mumsnet at least once a week from people trying to go on holiday with a passport expiring in a month. I honestly don’t understand how it can happen. And if you’re a parent, you know that your kid’s passports last 5 years, not 10. Doesn’t matter though - I know mine has 10 years but I still look at it to check every time.

Seeing as the OP has literally said she is to blame then I’m inferring that she took on the responsibility of booking and checking. I don’t double check what my partner does when he has taken on a responsibility during one of our trips. Why would her husband double check if she said she had it under control?

Resins?

Haha, why indeed, @SnappyQuoter. I myself will infer that you're not acquainted with the concept of the mental load and where it usually falls...or with the female tendency to blame ourselves because of...gestures wildly the world.

I hate to blow your mind but my DS at secondary school in Ireland breaks up today for the entire SUMMER HOLIDAYS!

He’s just finished Transition Year and now has 14 weeks off. 😂

We’re going on a family holiday early next month. 🥳

If she took on responsibility to book the trip then yes it is her fault.

I made the same mistake several years ago with my son’s passport. Fortunately I was able to get a counter appointment at the passport office in London and presented there with the countersigned photographs and completed form. They deal with the application and his passport arrived in the post a few days later.

In your shoes, I’d be staying home with DD whilst the rest of the family go on the original flight. You can catch them up or stay home.

This happened to my DH and son. He'd booked the tickets ages ago for them to go on a trip. I've got son's passport. He asked me for it the day before flying. We cooed over how cute and baby faced our son looked before realising it had expired a month ago.

I felt awful, said sorry to DH as if it was my fault. Then I thought WTF? Why am I apologising?

OP so sorry this is happening.

So sorry. I was in this exact situation and was told absolutely no way would my child be allowed entry and this was 2 months and 28 days left on entry. Currently waiting on express passport and hoping it arrives in time. Give the Passport Office a call and see what can be done. I could only do week express application.

Given that advanced passenger information is required, I am surprised it did not flag that up sooner. The OP has acknowledged the situation is her own fault, but even so, systems can help avoid such things happening.

I hope you find a solution to this OP, even if it means separating the family for a week while someone waits at home for a new passport with your DD.

Good idea. I did something similar when my son's passport had expired ahead of a trip to rhe Netherlands. I got a fast track passport within a couple of days.

I'd send the others ahead and do the fast track passport for your 6 year old. You might be able to go for part of the holiday.

I did this earlier in the year with my passport - luckily a few days before we flew.

Do to fly very early on the Thursday morning. Realised the Friday evening before I didn't have enough time left on my passport. Luckily I managed to get a next working day appointment (so on the Monday) in Liverpool to renew.

I would just get the earliest appointment you can in either Liverpool or London and speak to the airline and see if you can move the outbound plane tickets back a few days.

Good luck @Potterxoxo

They won't let you fly. Happened to me a couple of weeks ago!

Totally unhelpful to you I realise, but I just wanted to say thank you for prompting me to check our passports this morning, we go away in july and I thought all my children's passports were june 2027, just found out the youngest expires june 2026!! I probably wouldn't have looked until packing the passports had I not seen this post!

Hope you manage to do the 1 week express process and fly out in a few days once you are sorted. We did this for 1 of our children, they'd only just been born and we wanted to get away, but my husband is a teacher so we were tied to school hols. We had to drive to the other end of the country to get an appointment ASAP but it only took a few days for the passport to arrive and that was in july.

Oh bless you what a terrible situation. Absolutely no judgement here, I’m very organised in some respects but other important things often get overlooked. We travel in 6 weeks and I only realised the other week (by sheer luck!) my lb passport won’t have enough time left to travel! I have now applied for a renewal. The other thing I’d say not to scupper your plans but we are currently at 3 weeks and his application hasn’t progressed beyond “old passport received” so seems to be delays! Obviously you can fast track it but it’s still a week I believe. When me and my husband applied for new ones in 2024 they were ridiculously quick, something like 6 days from applying on standard passports we had them! I wish you all the best, I bet you feel sick to your stomach.

My dad actually told me on the DAY I was travelling to France with my school my passport had expired and my parents nor my school (they take the passports for a day to scan them etc) had noticed it would be expired before the trip! He was heartbroken and the most organised man I know, he never understood how he didn’t notice. My school actually snuck me into France as it was a coach trip 🤣 x

Why? It's just a renewal, no?

Child protection I think. Can’t abduct your child, get an emergency passport and leave the country in the space of a few hours.