A new Brexit passport rule could see over 100,000 Brits turned away from their European holiday this year. After leaving the European Union British passports will not be accepted if they were issued more than 10 years ago.
Home Office data indicates that 32 million people applied for passports that would now be 10 years old. Nine months from an old passport used to be able to be carried onto a new one but this is also no longer the case.
Travellers heading from the UK to the EU, including Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland, but not Ireland must make sure their passport was issued less than 10 years before departure. Your passport also needs to be valid for three months after your return date.
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If your passport was issued before September 2018, it could be valid for 10 years and nine months as the passport office used to roll over nine months from an old passport onto a new one.
Rory Boland, Travel Editor at Which? said: “The ’10-year-rule’ is a problem that continues to catch people out. What’s really important is that you check your passport validity and expiry date when booking your holiday.”
According to the BBC, Airlines UK claim that airlines do provide reminders about the 10-year-rule but there is no guarantee that invalid passport details will be picked up when booking. They said it was the responsibility of the traveller to ensure they have a valid passport.
Travel correspondent at the Independent, Simon Calder, found that ‘easily a couple of hundred’ people are turned away from their flights a day because they aren’t aware of this change.
You can apply for a new passport on the government website. In April the cost to do so is set to increase.
It will cost £88.50 instead of £82.50 for an adult application and £57.50 rather than £53.50 for a passport for anybody under 16.
Book flights through JetBlue, FinnAir, British Airways and KLM. See accommodation options on Booking.com and Hotels.com.
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