Check your passport expiry date
Being in France, we've recently heard awful stories about people being refused travel because they don't realise their passport is out of date. In previous times(!) passports had an extended date if they were renewed before the expiry date. If your passport was rewewed in July 2011 but didn't expire until April 2012, then it may show an expiry date of April 2022 - because the months remaining were added to the new passport.You need six months on your current passport to travel to Europe.
You might think your passport is OK because you're only going for a month and will be back long before the current passport 'expires', but in fact it actually expired in July 2021 (ten years from the renewal date).
It's easy to do, so check here: Check my Passport Expiry Date. We have met two people who had relatives who were refused travel, and apparently five people on a flight to Beziers recently were affected!
The two people we talked to had used their passport to order pre-departure tests, book in to the airline/Eurotunnel/ and even add ATC information on Eurotunnel, without any issue being raised by the travel company!
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So does a passport now run out exactly 10 years from the date on which it was renewed, rather than 6 months before the expiry date? From what you quote - renewed July 2011, expiry April 2022 - that is 9 months, so should that not be valid until October 2021? That seems even more confusing, if the criteria is the date of renewal, rather than 6 months remaining until expiry date.
Doesn't affect me, as I have a Dutch passport, but OH has a British passport.
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My SiL's passport needed renewing; she needed a new photo as well and went to Timpsons in ASDA for that. It appears Timpsons have some sort of agreement with passport office so they took photo, then sent it electronically to passport office, with referene number. SiL then went home, completed forms, quoting that reference number on her application and went to Post Office to send off. That was on Monday afternoon 2 weeks ago. She received her new passport at 9am on Friday morning that same week. Incredible!
Whether it was a fluke, or whether it was due to Timpsons being some sort of "partner" and sending the photo electronically we don't know. The photos cost £10, so a bit more than from one of those booths, but not excessively so, when you consider that they sent it off as well.
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InaD, the way I understood it is the EU only allow 10 years validity on a passport. Basically its 10 years from when it was renewed. The 'extra' months that may have been added no longer count.
The other bone of contention is that the UK Gov site was saying you need 6 months left on your passport at the end of your holiday. The EU are saying you only need 3 months.
There has been cases where folk have been turned away from airports by holiday companies as they had less than 6 months. The companies then in many cases offered a replacement holiday once this was sorted out. I believe the UK Gov site has now been corrected.
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