NO-DEAL PASSPORT PANIC
Website crashes after warning to renew or face ban from EU
THE Passport Office website crashed yesterday after a warning that millions of holidaymakers could be barred from EU countries by a No Deal Brexit unless they beat today’s renewal deadline.
A surge in applications was triggered by consumer group Which? after it said 3.5million Britons with less than six months left on passports could be stopped from entering multiple European countries this summer – including France, Spain and Italy.
However, those who acted on the advice found the Government website was not working, and were presented with the message: ‘This service is not available. If you don’t want to wait you can apply a different way.’
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: ‘After months of patchy and confusing information about passports from the Government, this late rush in the weeks before Brexit was entirely foreseeable – which makes it even more shocking that people have been let down by an IT glitch.’
The consumer watchdog announced that around 3.5million UK passports would not be accepted for travel to the Schengen area – 26 European countries which have ended passport control at their mutual borders – from March 30. Schengen rules demand travellers from non-EU countries have at least six months still valid on their passports from the day of travel.
In a further complication, it warned that, until recently, UK citizens who renewed their passport before it expired could have up to nine months of the remaining validity added to their new travel document.
For someone renewing a ten year passport, for example, it would appear to run for ten years and nine months. But any time carried over will not count towards the six-month requirement after a No Deal Brexit – meaning people with up to 15 months left on their passport could be denied entry to many popular destinations on the continent.
The website problem lasted for much of the day, until the Home Office announced at around 4pm that the ‘ technical issue’ had been resolved.
A spokesman said last night: ‘There was a technical issue with the HM Passport Office website, which meant that some services were unavailable for a short period. The website is now working as normal.’
The consumer group also drew attention to the threats to Britons’ holiday plans if the UK were to leave the EU without a deal, including delays from the introduction of immigration checks.
Mr Boland added: ‘ Airports can be chaotic at the best of times, but if additional checks at passport control in Spain, Italy and other popular EU destinations are implemented in the event of a No Deal, it seems that very long queues are going to be an unwanted side effect.
‘You should consider what you may need if you have to fly to them, as it is very likely that you’ll be in a queue for several hours.
‘Make sure you have food, water and essentials for kids like nappies to hand.’