Travelers are cautioned not to let the “passport 10 year rule” spoil their plans for traveling within the EU.
It used to be possible for visitors from the UK to transfer up to nine months from one old passport to a new one. But passports issued more than ten years ago would not be accepted by EU nations after Brexit.
According to data from the Home Office, 32 million people have sought for passports that would expire after ten years if approved.
Nathan Barnes is one of them; he was turned away from a flight to France.
The 31-year-old paramedic from Norwich, Mr. Barnes, was traveling to Limoges with his fiancée to see relatives.
Despite checking in for the flight online, and going through security and passport control, he was stopped at the departure gate.
“My passport had been issued more than 10 years previously,” he said. “They were very matter of fact about it, they just said ‘sorry you can’t board, off you pop’.”
“I was gutted, surprised really. We had checked in online and thought it was fine,” he added.
Since the UK left the EU, travellers heading to all countries within the zone – and including Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland, but not Ireland – must have a passport which was issued less than 10 years before their departure date.
Additionally, it needs to be good for three months beyond their intended return date.
Due to passport regulations, my family took off without me.
A UK passport may, however, be valid for up to 10 years and 9 months if it was issued before September 2018.
This is due to the fact that, prior to that, the passport office would append nine months to the expiration date of an existing passport.
32.1 million applications for a UK passport were reportedly submitted between March 2014 and September 2018, according to Home Office figures.
Are you affected by the 10-year rule?
- If your passport was issued between March 2014 and September 2018 you could be affected
- If it was issued more than 10 years ago it is invalid for travel to EU countries including Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland, but not Ireland
- If you are going to these countries you must have a passport issued less than 10 years before your departure date
- If your passport is invalid you can try and book an emergency appointment online at your nearest passport office
- Otherwise passports can be renewed online by HM Passport Office or by using a paper application form certain Post Offices.
- It can take up to three weeks to renew a passport from the UK, but it can take longer.
‘Holidays lost’
Simon Calder, travel correspondent at the Independent, says based on his own research “easily a couple of hundred people a day” are being turned away from their flights.
“Across the year you could easily find that there’s over 100,000 people who lose their holidays as a result of these rules,” he said.
He has written to the airlines, urging them to do more to make people aware, particularly if someone is checking in and inputting their advanced passenger information, often weeks before their travel date.