I screwed up and just as I am filling in passport details for the flight, I’ve seen that my child’s passport had expired in January.
The flight is on morning of 4 August from Basel to Manchester so not much time to solve this problem.
Is there anyway for him to get his passport renewed in time? He has a French identity card, but I don’t think post-Brexit he can travel with this (would be happy to hear the contrary). He doesn’t have a French passport and not sure how quickly he can obtain one if this is a possible route.
Yes, I looked into that, it was a bit tight at 8 days, but in any case, I found out that it doesn’t apply (at least for kids) when you don’t live in the UK.
I have a feeling, that you can travel to your home country on an expired passport, as they cannot refuse a citizen entry. Double check with airline though, don’t take my word for it. Whether he could get back here with his French ID card I’m not sure.
According to Easyjet passport and visa requirement checker, I think they allow it. On the outbound, he can travel with passport as long as it was not expired for more than 10 years.
The problem is on the inbound, however, his identity card should be sufficient. Fingers-crossed.
I don’t think it is possible for me to get passport in time, so this is seems to be the only option.
He should be allowed to fly back. You can’t enter the UK on an ID card, but you can enter France/Switzerland on a French ID, which should be what matters.
So. I had broken sleep the last few days, haven’t eaten since 8am, drove home a while ago to discover the passport debacle.
I just told my wife “oh no, I screwed up, I have to cancel the trip because his passport expired.”
“why don’t you just take his French passport?”
“the what now?!”
“remember, I didn’t want to go to the expense of getting French passports since they already had UK ones but you insisted on getting them just in case.”
Can he enter the UK on a French passport even though he’s British? Some countries (USA, for example) require citizens to enter on that country’s passport and not another. But for the airlines the French one might work without a problem. Congratulations on your thinking either way, Past_Phil!
I still have to check if there are any post Brexit visa requirements but as long as he can get on the plane there and back, I figure there should be a way to sort it out.
If one you as parents has a FR passport you should maybe also travel on that. I’m wondering if the border asshats might give you grief if mum and dad are on UK passports but kiddo is different?
Congratulations on your thinking either way, Past_Phil!