My mum is due to fly over for Easter and we just saw her passport expires one month later in May. She will be traveling with a return ticket and with a Swiss grandaughter. Does anyone have any experience of entering for holiday with a soon to expire passport? I know the rules say 3 months.
Without a residence permit it could be that she is now allowed to board the plane. This happened in our family last year as it was flagged at the gate, we were only allowed to proceed on presentation of a permit.
The expiry date on British passports may no longer be valid. It is ten years after issue. While in the EU they added unused days to validity, but can't do that now.
I had a friend of a friend whose passport had almost expired, they even had a Swiss residence permit, the airline wouldn’t let her on. She had a right nightmare getting her passport renewed to come home.
Mind you, in Ye Goode Olde days, my parents last visit to the UK for eldest grand-daughter's wedding in 98- my mum got to boarding, being pushed in wheel-chair, with my dad next to her ... Young guy took her passport and said 'but Madame G. your passport is out of date!'. My mum looked at him and took his hand and said 'young man I am almost 90, and going to my grand-daughter's wedding, those things are not important, are they?' He smiled back and gave her her passport, and said 'you are right Madame, have a wonderful time'.
We phoned the Swiss Embassy in London after the wedding to explain the situation, and they sent a letter to give her permission to travel home. She never travelled again- but lived for many more years.
It is very unlikely she will even be allowed to board the plane as airlines can be fined for landing passengers who are refused entry, so they won’t want to take the risk. Also, if her grandchild is a minor make sure she has the appropriate documentation for traveling with her grandchild.
There is no government passport control exiting the UK*. But airlines have the responsibility of ensuring that they do not carry inadmissible passengers. Not only are they subject to fines they will be required to return the passenger(s) to the origin point, offloading booked passengers (with compensation) if necessary.
Big headache and expensive. There is little chance that the rules can be bent here.
*Even if there was, it’s not the UK government’s responsibility to ensure departing passengers meet the requirements of their destination country.
Thank you all for the helpful advice. The problem I had was that the waiting time for a UK passport is 10 weeks according to the website and my 90 year old mum could not possibly get herself to a passport office to pick up a fast track (one week) passport. I wrote to the passport office and am posting the reply they just sent, so that it might help someone else.
"Another person can attend the appointment on behalf of your mother as long as your mother provides a written statement to confirm she gives consent for them to do so. They will also need photo ID to prove their identity. There are 7 different offices that you can attend."
They say it’s 10 weeks - but my sister applied for her baby's first passport recently and it took 2-3 weeks. Get on it now and she might be lucky. It’s risky but better than not doing anything.
I don't see that you have much choice. Getting her already to go on a trip only to be turned back at the airport is not really a realistic choice. My parents are dead now, but in old age I always felt the pressures of travelling in any case was enough without any other complications.
Passports are only taking two to three weeks at most to come back at the moment even when sent by post so if she applies for a renewal immediately it should be back in plenty of time for the trip.