URGENT QUESTION - OUT OF DATE PASSPORT !!!

[oxocube]

I am due to travel to U.K. by ferry on Monday (30th) and have just noticed that although my passport is fine, two of our kids' passports expired in March 2003! I will have to risk it as its too late now to do anything about it without losing all our fare. We do have identification documents (Dutch) and I will take birth certs etc which may help if, Heaven forbid, the customs people notice. Are European i.d. cards a legal alternative to a passport when travelling in E.U. countries? Also, Dh thinks that you can renew passports over the counter in British post offices now. Is this true? Am really panicking now. Can anyone advise? TIA

here try this

UK passport office

and this is under their FAQ bit

"Some people tell me that as a British Citizen I don?t need a British passport to travel to other countries in continental Europe, is this right?

For all the countries of Europe (apart from the Irish Republic) people travelling from the United Kingdom need to have a valid passport to comply with immigration and other controls. Some continental European countries have abandoned routine passport checks at their frontiers but they all expect visitors to be able to provide evidence of identity and nationality by way of a valid passport or national identity card while in their country. British travellers must therefore have a standard 10-year British passport."

sorry oxocube - obviously being Dutch that last post was kind of irrelevant - hope you find what you're looking for on the site though!

The Post Office will check your documents and give you priority over other applicants, but there is still a 2 week wait. You would have to go to the Passport Office in person to renew I'm afraid. You can do this same day for a hefty price. Try the Passport Advice line on 0870 521 0410 (I've spent the morning trying to sort ds2's passport out - had it rejected as I started it in blue ink and then overwrote it in black...)

Good luck!

Sorry oxocube, but it is Immigration more than Customs who will kick up a fuss. The EU should mean free travel but the UK still insists on passports for re-entry. I would contact the office that issued your passport. Good luck.

Can you contact the appropriate embassy local to you and ask them what to do?

Hope you have found an answer but I think KatieRocket's answer is a bit misleading (from the passport office website) as it talks about leaving the UK and gaining entry elsewhere.

You can do a fast application at a UK passport office but it will cost you about 80 per passport.

I've just been doing ou passport applications this morning and also been on the phone to the helpline. Quite frankly I can't see what business of theirs it is that DD has an NZ passport but they want it apparently. All set to go then I noticed our friend had misspelt DD's name on the back of the photo when confirming her ID. Aaaargh.

Good job we don't travel til August but I have had these forms since April....

I know lots of summer school Italian kids who come to the UK without passports at all - just their id cards - do your kids have id cards as well? I guess a travel agent in Holland could tell you if their id cards are good enough (!) to go to the UK on - in which case you could just smuggle in their passports and get them updated here.

I once realised my passport was out of date in the queue for the ferry - it was way too late to turn back, so just risked it and handed in over with the ones for the other passengers in the car. It was fine. I'm not sure if the guy checked and decided to let it go (only a bit out of date ) or if he didn't even notice. But I got to France and no problems.

this(item 5 onwards) may help, if you mean UK passports - if so then technically the kids are in Holland illegally! You can renew at the consulate but it take about 5 days. You may be better off telling a little fib and reporting them lost (the passports, not the kids )

I assumed Holland as you said Dutch i.d. documents. Is that where you are?

Ok, here's my family's confessions. My mum has been to France twice with her out of date passport (and she didn't tell my dad) At Calais and dover they have only had their passport actually looked at about once and they have travelled 3 times a year for the last 10 years. When I go back and forth between Holland and the UK we just wave our passports out of the window, they are very rarely checked, there is often not even anybody on duty. I have noticed this is definitely more so in the last couple of years, the passport offices are just not manned (or womaned!)
I once realised I had forgotten my passport just outside Dover. The Uk let me out with just my driving licence but sadi they had no guarentee that France would let me in. France let me in once they realised we were heading through France to Holland!
The law is that you must have an identity card of some sort, which, as we don't have national id cards, means a passport, but if they have their Dutch documents, that is valid, and they have proof of EU citizenship, and so they should not be refused entry to the Uk, assuming that anyone actually bothers to look at their passports at any time. You could just take the old ones and go "Gosh, out of date, Really?" Which is what my mum planned to do if she was ever stopped!

Thanks everyone! We are all British and hold British passports but as we are living in Holland, we have Dutch residency permits and everyone here has to carry an identity card, a bit like a credit card, which has your details such as name, date of birth and the city in which you have registered. It is these i.d. docs I meant when asking if they were valid to travel to U.K. Sorry to be confusing! I think its a bit late to contact the Embassy. TBH, the immigration people usually only give a cursory glance at our passports (maybe I look too repectable or too harrassed with my kids!).

Thanks to all for the info and will check out the recommended links

This is from my ryanair booking form - it seems to say that Dutch photo national ID cards are valid forms of id if travelling from Holland to Britain and your kids don't need one with a photo on - very firm about the out of date bit though

All PASSENGERS must present VALID photo identification at check-in
for all flights including domestic flights, flights between the
UK-Republic of Ireland-UK and flights between Schengen States.
The Schengen States are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, Spain & Sweden. For all passengers travelling on a flight
to or from a non Schengen State. i.e. a country not listed above.
(Except flights between UK-Republic of Ireland-UK), The only accepted
form of photo-ID is a valid passport (and visa if required) or a
valid Schengen State issued National Identity Card.
For passengers travelling on domestic flights, flights between the
UK-Republic of Ireland-UK and flights between Schengen States. The
only accepted forms of photo identification are a valid passport,
valid driving licence with photo, valid international student
identity card with photo, or a valid Schengen State issued National
Identity Card. No other forms of photo-id are acceptable.
(Children under the age of 16 years travelling with an
adult who has a valid photo identification on domestic flights,
UK-Republic of Ireland-UK flights or flights between the Schengen
States do not need photo-id.) Expired forms of photo ID will not be
accepted for any flight. Failure to present valid photo
identification matching the names on your reservation will result in
you being refused check-in without refund.

I'm sure you'll be fine with your dutch id. We had an office trip to italy for the day last year. One of the girls in the office was Mexican, but had lived in holland for a while with her french husband and therefore had an old dutch id (she was supposed to surrender it when she left holland but didn't). Her Mexican passport was with the us embassy waiting for a visa, so she travelled to Italy (from the uk) with her old dutch id and had absolutely no problem in either direction.

j to follow up morrocco's info, airlines and flights are very strict about id these days (even requiring a passport for INTERNAL UK flights, but that ferry ports are very lax, and rarely check, and do often allow people thruogh with id cards etc rather than with passports. I am sure you will be fine with Dutch ids, the laws for opening the borders between EU states means that a lot of what the UK tell you is not actually enforcable, so when it comes to the crunch they let you in.