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Word of warning - check your kids passports!

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
As the title reads, sister in law due to go on the families first ever ski trip with her husband and their two kids for half term. The youngest’s passport has less than 2 months on it and they can’t get a new one in time for their flights, and destination won’t allow entry with short validity, looking likely they will cancel the whole trip and loose a significant chunk of change in the process!

Made me double check when ours expire Laughing
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@LDP816, yup, a known issue and discussed here before. There is a thread about speed of passport renewals too.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Can they not use the fast track service at a passport office ? Had a similar issue and was able to turn around a new passport the next day, Admittedly had to drive to Durham and pay but we managed to get away
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Vessigaud wrote:
Can they not use the fast track service at a passport office ? Had a similar issue and was able to turn around a new passport the next day, Admittedly had to drive to Durham and pay but we managed to get away


Apparently this doesn’t work for kids, they need a week?! I’m staying out of it, just thought it was good to remind people, seemingly it happens more than you think!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Vessigaud, you mean the “Online Premium” service - on the day issuance by appointment ? (What is called “Fast track” is a one week service). You can use “Fast track” for kids but Online Premium is for adults only.
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no disrespect to the OP's SIL, but seriously who leaves it to the week before travelling to check passport expiry? Since Brexit there has been plenty in the media about needing at least 3 month left on a passport to go pretty much everywhere except Bridlington.

I once had to go to Peterborough (I think) to do the one day thing a few years back when work sent me to Israel at short notice when I only had 5 months left to run on it.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
You can do the fast track option for kids. I did it recently. You just can’t do it online, need to get a paper form from the Post Office. It is clearly explained on the Passport Office website, so no idea where their information is coming from. It is quite expensive to do the fast service and you need an appointment. Maybe either of those are the issue?
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@zikomo, if they are going at half term, then that will be this Fri/Sat departure ? (Our HT is this week) If they only just found out then the 1 week “Fast Track” will be no good to them.
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LDP816 wrote:
As the title reads, sister in law due to go on the families first ever ski trip with her husband and their two kids for half term. The youngest’s passport has less than 2 months on it and they can’t get a new one in time for their flights, and destination won’t allow entry with short validity, looking likely they will cancel the whole trip and loose a significant chunk of change in the process!

Made me double check when ours expire Laughing


Another #brexit bonus

Thank Ress-Mogg and the other plebs who voted for this
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Some friends of mine just got dinged by this, coming from the US to here in France. To be honest, if you haven't traveled abroad much, you wouldn't even think of it.

So luckily they found out before they traveled, and can reschedule w/out losing too much money. I'm sympathetic to the OP's relatives.
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Our neighbours managed to get a new passport for 15yr old by going to passport office took 3 days.
Cost a bit though.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
The six month thing has been pretty standard for lots of international travel for ever. Brits have got used to taking entry to Europe for granted. And then the English voted for Brexit. And now people are surprised that the same rules now apply to people from UK as from any other country to enter France. The French are not being abtuse or belligerent, merely moving UK from EU travel rules to those that apply to non-EU.

On this specific question there are options that do not seem to have been considered. Including paying to get an appointment and quick turnaround.
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zikomo wrote:
Including paying to get an appointment and quick turnaround.


As mentioned before, this is not available for kids

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service

@You’ll apply, pay and book an appointment online. The earliest you can get an appointment is 2 days from when you apply.

You’ll get your new passport at your appointment. Appointments can last up to 30 minutes.

It costs £177 (or £187 for a 50 page frequent traveller passport).

You can only use Online Premium to renew an adult passport that was issued after 31 December 2001.”
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Yes, it's a bit of a minefield - probably more for adults if they have a passport with extra/leftover months added as goes against validity rules.

My son's passport ends start of Dec. We'll be in France Easter and mid/end of August. August trip should be fine but think I'll renew before we go to avoid any unnecessary stress.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
We very nearly got caught by this in 2020.

[The passport was due to run out in Feb’21, I wasn’t disorganised].

I posted our daughter’s renewal with no mistakes on 1 November.

The passport arrived 7 weeks later, the day before we were due to travel.

There was literally no meaningful way to contact the Passport Office to chase or discuss an individual case.

DVLA and Passport Office have had a chaotic 23 months, it’s been covered on R4 and LBC amongst others. The vast majority of personnel now WFH and unlucky repeatedly fall prey to Covid.

My advice is get applications in at least 3 months ahead of when needed.


Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Tue 15-02-22 20:25; edited 1 time in total
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
t44tomo wrote:
no disrespect to the OP's SIL, but seriously who leaves it to the week before travelling to check passport expiry? Since Brexit there has been plenty in the media about needing at least 3 month left on a passport to go pretty much everywhere except Bridlington.

I once had to go to Peterborough (I think) to do the one day thing a few years back when work sent me to Israel at short notice when I only had 5 months left to run on it.


No offence taken, I believe it’s an oversight which could have easily been avoided, but also it is a human error which anyone could fall foul of!

I’m fairly meticulous about these things, I’m a firearms owner, so the implications of forgetting to renew that are a fair bit worse than missing a ski trip!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:

My advice is get applications in at least 3 months ahead of when needed


Which is interesting as their website currently says 3 weeks for child renewal. But I've put in diary for way earlier. Shame as never used to have this hassle.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
A friend once arrived at the airport with her daughter's passport expired completely. So it was off to Durham to get a rapid one (you could do that in those days), and a rebooked flight for the next day. Fortunately they were flying with EJ to a common destination, not long haul. Even in pre-Brexit days you needed one in date, even if by only one day.
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I remember when you could get a one year cardboard passport at the post office in town.

I have our Irish passports running a couple of years after our UK ones to limit getting caught out like this.

Gutted for OP’s friends though- so disappointing
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I renewed my passport 2 weeks ago - took 10 days from online app to passport in hand.
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I renewed my passport 2 weeks ago - took 10 days from online app to passport in hand.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I renewed my passport 2 weeks ago - took 10 days from online app to passport in hand.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@orange, all three of them? Very Happy
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Hope they didn’t multiply the fee too!!
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You can renew a child passport in 1 week guaranteed.

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

Easy to find and easy to do. I did it recently. It costs quite a bit more but works well
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Have they considered risking it in the tunnel? We got my nephew to France ( in back of car with 5 cousins) with an expired passport. Paperwork was barely looked at
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
No idea what happened there !
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@trmacc, you have to pre-load the passenger info these days
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I missread the title of this thread ... Word of warning - check your kids passwords!
I dont think I'd like to check them.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Nadenoodlee wrote:
@trmacc, you have to pre-load the passenger info these days


You do. My son managed without his passport but the API had already been completed, he'd just forgotten to bring it with him We waved a pile of passports at the nice frenchman through the window and he waved us on our way. Getting back he reported it missing to the Uk border control who took his details, but didn't cancel his passport as he fessed up to it still being on his bedside table at home.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Ha....this happened to us on a 3 week trip to Asia a few years back.

Arrived at Heathrow airport and we were told they wouldn't allow our daughter on the flight to Kuala Lumpur, as she had only 5 months left on her passport. They offered us Bangkok instead (rules are less strict for Thailand) and gave us about 20 mins to make our minds up. It was either going to Bangkok or cancelling the entire holiday - so we went to Bangkok.

Problem was that they weren't able to change our return flights from KL to Bangkok, so we knew we were going to struggle to get into Malaysia from Thailand for our flight home. The day before our flight home we tried to get from Krabi (Thailand) into Malaysia and again at the airport they refused her entry (even for 24 hours).

So I ended up going to Kuala Lumpur by myself (again the decision had to be made on the spot) in order to get the flight home as originally planned (and keep costs down), whilst daughter and wife flew to Bangkok in order to try and get back to the UK from there.

They managed to change the tickets (cost of £300) and were on a flight back home from Bangkok the next morning, at the same time as I flew from Kuala Lumpur.

As both flights were at the same time and both with Oman Air, it just so turned out that we were reunited in Muscat airport and did the last leg of journey home all together.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Pre-Brexit, this sort of hassle happened far more frequently than one would imagine.
I ended up faxing Border Force at LGW on one occaision to ask advice on what to do about a client's child whose passport was expiring during their holiday!
At another extreme was the family who went to check in at Bristol one day only to be refused because Little Johnny didn't have a passport - they thought that a photo countersigned by his school teacher would be sufficient. . . . . . . . .
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
kettonskimum wrote:
Yes, it's a bit of a minefield - probably more for adults if they have a passport with extra/leftover months added as goes against validity rules.

My son's passport ends start of Dec. We'll be in France Easter and mid/end of August. August trip should be fine but think I'll renew before we go to avoid any unnecessary stress.


Thought I should give this a bump as nearly caught out for January trip.
We have a friend coming with us on January trip.
Popped in the other day with passport details for API on booking.
Entering details all seemed fine, more than ninety days left after return date.
Fortunately they had photocopied the passport.
Later in the evening before I shredded the copy I noticed the ninety days included extra month past the ten years.
Time to get a replacement ok but could have been a disaster unlikely any off as would have checked again before trip.
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@Garfield, "Later in the evening before I shredded the copy I noticed the ninety days included extra month past the ten years."

Extra month, or extra months (plural)?

If the 90 days for the return date included only an extra month - i.e. the passport expiry date is April 2025 - then the passport would have been issued in March 2015. In which case it is valid for entry into the EU (which requires that the passport is less than 10 years old - see the Issue date) and if it has 90 days validity after the return date from the EU, which you suggest in your post that it had, then it also meets the 90 day exit rule (for this rule, the Expiry date is the key date, even if it includes an "extra" month or two). A passport issued in Feb 2015 would also still be valid if the Expiry date is in April 2025 (and is more than 90 days after the date you leave the EU).
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
After reading this thread, it sounds like you need to check the adults' passports as much as the kids'! Laughing Laughing
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@luigi, indeed. I just renewed mine even though it was 'valid' to Dec 25. I would have been caught out mid season. I went for the fast track renewal, I don't care about the cost, I just want my passport
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
quinton wrote:
@Garfield, "Later in the evening before I shredded the copy I noticed the ninety days included extra month past the ten years."

Extra month, or extra months (plural)?

If the 90 days for the return date included only an extra month - i.e. the passport expiry date is April 2025 - then the passport would have been issued in March 2015. In which case it is valid for entry into the EU (which requires that the passport is less than 10 years old - see the Issue date) and if it has 90 days validity after the return date from the EU, which you suggest in your post that it had, then it also meets the 90 day exit rule (for this rule, the Expiry date is the key date, even if it includes an "extra" month or two). A passport issued in Feb 2015 would also still be valid if the Expiry date is in April 2025 (and is more than 90 days after the date you leave the EU).


You may be correct but my understanding for entry into EU is it is all counted from the issue date.
Passport was issued early 2015 with expiry about July 2025
Problem is there was not 90 days left of the ten years from the issue date which is what the airlines and EU are enforcing as I understand things.
This may not be the case but a new passport is on it'sway.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@Garfield, There are two dates to consider - the Issue date and the Expiry date.

This from gov.uk regarding entry into Austria (the rules are the same for all Schengen countries):

Passport validity requirements
Austria follows Schengen area rules. Your passport must:

- have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive – if you renewed your passport before 1 October 2018, it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago

- have an ‘expiry date’ at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area.


Airlines, and the UK government themselves, were initially getting this wrong and claiming that the passport expired on the date of the 10-year anniversary, but as it is over 3 years since the Schengen rules came into force, everyone should by now have understood the correct requirements - which I admit doesn't help if you're stood at the airport with Mr. Jobsworth who hasn't understood the rules and won't let you on the plane Confused .

There have been countless articles about this - see this from Simon Calder in the Independent > https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/passport-renew-rules-2024-brexit-eu-b2519949.html
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holidayloverxx wrote:
@luigi, indeed. I just renewed mine even though it was 'valid' to Dec 25. I would have been caught out mid season. I went for the fast track renewal, I don't care about the cost, I just want my passport


If a straightforward renewal it is very quick. My old passport was issued April 2015, expiry date August 2025. I had a slot with no planned travel from when I came back from the US earlier in November until I head for Chatel first week of Jan.

I had photos taken in Snappy Snaps on Tuesday 12 Nov, applied on line that afternoon (standard application £88.50), posted old passport recorded delivery Wed 13, confirmation that it was received Fri 15 and that the application was approved 5 seconds later. Received new passport Tuesday 19 Nov. All very slick.
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trmacc wrote:
Have they considered risking it in the tunnel? We got my nephew to France ( in back of car with 5 cousins) with an expired passport. Paperwork was barely looked at

Not “risking it” on purpose, but I once cross the US-CA border with an expired passport! Shocked

Funny thing was, the Canadian border officer handed me back the passport and said “By the way, that passport card has expired”. But he let us in anyway.

(In the US, probably canada too, we have a special form of passport that’s only valid for land crossing. That’s the one that expired. Fortunately, I also had the full function passport still valid, and it’s in the back of the car in a separate wallet. So I didn’t have to stressed too much about being able to return to the US)
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