UK PASSPORT VALIDITY – IMPORTANT- Check your passport dates

Since the UK left the European Union, British passport holders have been subject to more stringent rules regarding their travel documents. Fall foul of these new rules and you may find yourself having problems when travelling and potentially with a visa application.

While UK passport holders still enjoy visa-free travel to the EU for 90 days in every 180 day period, EU rules state that passports from non-EU countries must be less than ten years old and valid for at least three months after you plan to leave the EU country.

If your UK passport was issued before 1 October 2018, extra months may have been added to its expiry date.

GUIDANCE FOR TRAVELLING ON A UK PASSPORT:

To make sure your passport is okay for travel, ask yourself two questions for each person going with you (this includes kids) if you can say yes to both, you’re all set:

1. On the date of travel to the EU, will your passport’s ‘date of issue’ be less than 10 years old?
2. When you leave the EU, will your passport still have at least three months left (based on the ‘date of expiry)?

If you’re going to places that aren’t in the EU, like Turkey, the rules might be different, so make sure to check on the Foreign Office’s website for specific country-by-country rules.

GUIDANCE ON PASSPORT VALIDITY FOR A VISA APPLICATION

UK passports also need to have at least 12 months validity for a visa application and extra months added on won’t count.

To make sure your passport has sufficient validity for a visa application, ask yourself this question:

On your target visa appointment date, will your passport still have at least 12 months left on it FROM DATE OF ISSUE – ignore the expiry date.

NEED TO RENEW YOUR UK PASSPORT?

You can renew your UK passport online even if you are living overseas but you’ll need to check the processing time to make sure you can get yours renewed before your target date.

There are fast-track and emergency processing options as well.