Passport less than 3 months

[rufmeister]

Argh! My wife has arranged a surprise trip to see her Mum in Poland for her 70th, gone to check in and whilst Wizz has allowed the check in, it flagged our daughters passport for having less than 3 months left before expiration.

The .gov site clearly states you require 3 months validity from your return, however I read mixed messages online saying it will be ok to travel.

My wife’s devastated understandably, are we able to fly or not? I believe not but the mixed messages are giving her hope.

[Truckosaurus]

As you say the basic requirements for the whole of the Schengen Zone is <10yrs from issue and 3 months remaining from the planned return date, so that seems to scupper you.

The .gov.uk travel site says to speak to the Polish embassy if you don't meet this standard.

[rufmeister]

Yeah, calling embassy at opening time. Just can’t see any way round it personally, but people online saying nobody will notice, that they’ve done it, etc and it’s giving her hope. Would’ve thought it was one of the more black and white things in life but we will see.

[Mr E]

My recent passport took 4 days from online submission to delivery

No guarantees, but an option if the computer really says no?

[rufmeister]

Flying tonight unfortunately.

[Truckosaurus]

I don't think 'they might not notice' stands much chance these days as they now check date stamps to calculate your number of days in the zone so would definitely be checking something basic like the expiry date being good (let alone any computerised check) - especially as so many of us still have the pre-2018 passports with >10years validity.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Given you have paid etc, nothing to be lost by risking it for a biscuit.

[Deesee]

UK passports or Polish passports? Polish/EU ones you'll be fine.

[rufmeister]

Update - Polish embassy say “meh! Should be ok as both parents have valid passports, but speak to UK embassy”

UK embassy say “meh, speak to Polish embassy”

Internet says don’t travel, do travel, risk it.

Kurwa.

[Fastdruid]

rufmeister said:

Argh! My wife has arranged a surprise trip to see her Mum in Poland for her 70th, gone to check in and whilst Wizz has allowed the check in, it flagged our daughters passport for having less than 3 months left before expiration.

The .gov site clearly states you require 3 months validity from your return, however I read mixed messages online saying it will be ok to travel.

My wife’s devastated understandably, are we able to fly or not? I believe not but the mixed messages are giving her hope.

The real issue is for those older passports where they tacked on remaining "time" when you renewed, you'd end up with a passport with 10 years 7 months or something. You check and you've got a clear 3/6 months etc but the requirement is *now* for it to also be under 10 years old.

My MiL fell foul of that when flying to Greece, had 6+ months but it was over 10 years old, they refused to let her board and had to go get an new passport.

The problem is that if the airline lets you board the country you are flying to may deny entry and I believe the carrier is held responsible and will then have to fly you back again at their cost. So its in their best interests to err on the side of caution.

Not knowing how old your daughter is its hard to tell if she'd fall foul of the 10 year rule but with less than 3 months validity IMO I would expect to be turned away and plan accordingly.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Fastdruid said:

rufmeister said:

Argh! My wife has arranged a surprise trip to see her Mum in Poland for her 70th, gone to check in and whilst Wizz has allowed the check in, it flagged our daughters passport for having less than 3 months left before expiration.

The .gov site clearly states you require 3 months validity from your return, however I read mixed messages online saying it will be ok to travel.

My wife’s devastated understandably, are we able to fly or not? I believe not but the mixed messages are giving her hope.

The real issue is for those older passports where they tacked on remaining "time" when you renewed, you'd end up with a passport with 10 years 7 months or something. You check and you've got a clear 3/6 months etc but the requirement is *now* for it to also be under 10 years old.

My MiL fell foul of that when flying to Greece, had 6+ months but it was over 10 years old, they refused to let her board and had to go get an new passport.

The problem is that if the airline lets you board the country you are flying to may deny entry and I believe the carrier is held responsible and will then have to fly you back again at their cost. So its in their best interests to err on the side of caution.

Not knowing how old your daughter is its hard to tell if she'd fall foul of the 10 year rule but with less than 3 months validity IMO I would expect to be turned away and plan accordingly.

I often wonder the exact reason for these little random tweaks (eg the 10 year old, but still valid thing) comes from. Or if it the continually creeping excellence type problem.

What problem is it solving to have two rules not one - it is in-date but also 10 year validity? Apart from causing loads of people to miss events and so forth.

[Fastdruid]

GiantEnemyCrab said:

Fastdruid said:

rufmeister said:

Argh! My wife has arranged a surprise trip to see her Mum in Poland for her 70th, gone to check in and whilst Wizz has allowed the check in, it flagged our daughters passport for having less than 3 months left before expiration.

The .gov site clearly states you require 3 months validity from your return, however I read mixed messages online saying it will be ok to travel.

My wife’s devastated understandably, are we able to fly or not? I believe not but the mixed messages are giving her hope.

The real issue is for those older passports where they tacked on remaining "time" when you renewed, you'd end up with a passport with 10 years 7 months or something. You check and you've got a clear 3/6 months etc but the requirement is *now* for it to also be under 10 years old.

My MiL fell foul of that when flying to Greece, had 6+ months but it was over 10 years old, they refused to let her board and had to go get an new passport.

The problem is that if the airline lets you board the country you are flying to may deny entry and I believe the carrier is held responsible and will then have to fly you back again at their cost. So its in their best interests to err on the side of caution.

Not knowing how old your daughter is its hard to tell if she'd fall foul of the 10 year rule but with less than 3 months validity IMO I would expect to be turned away and plan accordingly.

I often wonder the exact reason for these little random tweaks (eg the 10 year old, but still valid thing) comes from. Or if it the continually creeping excellence type problem.

What problem is it solving to have two rules not one - it is in-date but also 10 year validity? Apart from causing loads of people to miss events and so forth.

Technically I think it's always been a rule but because we were in the EU you only needed a valid passport, if it expired the day after you returned it was fine.

With Brexit UK citizens have no longer are allowed the "just needs to be valid" and so it falls to the 10 year/ 3 month rule.

[Amateurish]

"Your passport should be valid for at least 3 months after the date you intend to leave the EU and it must have been issued within the last 10 years."

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry...

The problem is that Wizz won't allow you to check in - computer says no.

[Amateurish]

GiantEnemyCrab said:

I often wonder the exact reason for these little random tweaks (eg the 10 year old, but still valid thing) comes from. Or if it the continually creeping excellence type problem.

What problem is it solving to have two rules not one - it is in-date but also 10 year validity? Apart from causing loads of people to miss events and so forth.

It's just the standard EU rule for non-EU nationals.

[rufmeister]

Amateurish said:

"Your passport should be valid for at least 3 months after the date you intend to leave the EU and it must have been issued within the last 10 years."

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry...

The problem is that Wizz won't allow you to check in - computer says no.

Frustratingly it has allowed online check-in, and all last night and today so far has led to nothing conclusive other than my wife asking all her friends who say yes of course, its no problem!

Reason doesn't enter the conversation unfortunately and she believes her friends and some FB chat over the governments official advice.

I'm in for a fun day!

[rpguk]

My wife got caught out a year or two back, her passport even had 3 months validity but it wasn't within 10 years of issue so fell foul of the rules.

We got as far as the gate and Ryanair said no and wouldn't budge on it. It made the news over the next couple of days - lots of people getting caught out. It didn't seem to be any change of rules at the time, I suspect they just had a crackdown on enforcement. They now include the information about this on the check-in page.

I suspect that we'd have been fine on the other side however if we weren't than the airline would be on the line for a pretty big fine + costs to return so I can understand why their position and ultimately its on the traveller to be compliant with visa rules - another brexit bonus.

All that being said you might find you get waved on without a second look, if it were me and it were all paid up I'd give it a go anyway and have a backup plan to do something nice with the daughter (Scotland, Channel Islands, Ireland, Spa trip?) if she doesn't get through and let the wife get on to her mums celebrations.

Edited by rpguk on Friday 24th November 19:59

[rpguk]

How'd it go OP?

[rufmeister]

Wife went on her own.

The only definitive answer was the document,wntnisnt valid for travel, lots of umms amd ahhs and ask here and there, but nobody could guarantee anything.

[rpguk]

Ah sorry to hear that, at least the wife gets out and hopefully your daughter isn't too disappointed.

[HighwayStar]

We fell foul of this… headed off to Sicily, at the gate ready to board girlfriend told passport expired, 10yrs and 3mths. She was told they couldn’t let her fly she would be turned back at the other end and possible fine for her and the airline. It was explained that she needed 6mths remaining on the passport when returning home. A few days later we ordered a new passport online and collected it from Peterborough passport office… must say, for a government department, it’s a very efficient, slick service!