{"id":16578,"date":"2025-04-13T13:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T13:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16578\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T13:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T13:11:12","slug":"im-not-the-only-british-tourist-with-a-passport-horror-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/16578\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not the only British tourist with a passport horror story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last thing I want is a passport<\/a> that\u2019s not valid, especially coming up to the summer holidays \u2013 but mine and my two children\u2019s passports are currently stuck in my broken safe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to cost me \u00a3100 plus VAT to prize it open with a locksmith, who thinks the batteries might have gone. By the time I get my hands on them, the cost to renew a UK passport<\/a> will have risen from \u00a388.50 to \u00a394.50 this week \u2013 that\u2019s a seven per cent increase<\/a>, and a rise of 25 per cent in two years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll replace mine using the Passport Office\u2019s premium service (\u00a3222), because I don\u2019t want to wait three weeks for a new one. Then, I\u2019ll potentially need to shell out \u00a3189 each for my daughters \u2014 once I\u2019ve checked over their current passports with a fine-tooth comb to establish, as best as I can, if they\u2019re soon to be out of date.<\/p>\n

You see, nothing is certain for UK passport holders these days. Even though the British passport is one of the most expensive in Europe, it no longer guarantees entry into another country. It\u2019s like a VIP pass that\u2019s been deactivated.<\/p>\n

There is mass confusion with UK passport holders being turned away from boarding flights or deported on arrival, as they get caught out by changes to EU passport rules after Brexit<\/a>. This is what happened to my friend Arabella last Saturday.<\/p>\n

The new 10-year rule for EU travel means your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before your entry date, and it must be valid for at least three months after your departure from the EU.<\/p>\n

But most travellers still just check the expiry date and believe there\u2019s plenty of time left. And why not? It sounds logical.<\/p>\n

So when Arabella arrived at Stansted Airport to fly for a two-week Easter break in Majorca with her husband and three children (all under the age of 10) \u2013 with her passport that\u2019s still valid until 15 November 2025 \u2013 she was not prepared for drama at 4.30am.<\/p>\n

A lady at check-in told her while pointing at the issue date: \u201cYou can\u2019t fly \u2013 your passport is more than 10 years, by a month.\u201d In Arabella\u2019s mind, she only needed three months on her passport to be OK to travel.<\/p>\n

It was her 40th birthday \u2013 and, instead of celebrating abroad, they all went home. She booked a one-day, premium in-person appointment in Peterborough, and waited four hours to get her new passport. She booked five new flights, costing \u00a31,200 \u2013 and flew that night with her new documents. At the departure gate, she overheard an official talking about another traveller: \u201cOh, we have another one with a passport issue date problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

When did \u201ctravelling while British\u201d become such a palaver?<\/p>\n

Of course, there are all the usual mishaps, such as lost and stolen passports. Horror stories abound. I had mine pinched from my bag in Prague. One of my daughters\u2019 passports had the cover hanging off it and stained pages by the time we arrived in Dubai after her bottle of baby milk leaked all over it.<\/p>\n

But when holidaymakers have had to cancel holidays or apply unnecessarily for a fast-track passport due to incorrect advice provided by the Passport Office about expiry dates for trips to the EU after Brexit \u2013 including a glitch in a government online passport checker that maintained kids\u2019 passports ran out after five months \u2013 it\u2019s a proper case of passport pandemonium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One dad friend was a nervous wreck when his children\u2019s new passports hadn\u2019t arrived a week before his family holiday to Greece \u2013 after being given incorrect advice by the Passport Office. His wife blamed him for not using the fast-track service, and told him: \u201cIf they don\u2019t arrive in time, I\u2019m going to divorce you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s not just me \u2013 or my circle \u2013 having holidays ruined by passport mayhem. This week, The Independent revealed<\/a> that a British tourist was wrongly deported from Norway in February after border officials at Oslo Airport made up a seemingly random new passport rule.<\/p>\n

He was put on a plane back to the UK, with a notice saying he had been \u201cexpelled from Norway\u201d. The officials had falsely claimed that passports expire after nine years and nine months. These incidents are happening all the time.<\/p>\n

As I plan a holiday to Portugal this summer, my sole focus isn\u2019t where we go or for how long \u2013 it\u2019s whether the passports are still in date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last thing I want is a passport that\u2019s not valid, especially coming up to the summer holidays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[11193,748,393,4884,1144,11192,712,16,11194,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-16578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-arabella","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-passport-office","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-uk-passport","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114330827838165656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}