Travellers pay price for Home Office campaign to renew passports early
Fear of being barred from EU countries after no-deal Brexit led to surge in unnecessary applications
TRAVELLERS worried by the threat of a no-deal Brexit have lost millions of pounds by renewing their passports early, a study has found.
They are among thousands who have fallen foul of a Home Office rule change that, it is claimed, has cost travellers some £13.3million since it was introduced last September.
The change ended the right of travellers to carry over time left on their old passports before their new documents became “live”, in effect costing them 567million days in lost passport validity, according to the study.
Concerns about the impact of a nodeal Brexit reached a peak in January when the Home Office launched a campaign urging people to renew their passports early or risk being barred by other EU states if they had less than six months left on their documents if the UK crashed out. However, as Brexit has now been delayed until October, people who have renewed their passports in light of the campaign to avoid having under six months left on the documents have done so unnecessarily.
Tom Bishop, the head of travel insurance at Direct Line, said the moves had taken many travellers by surprise, and left them with a difficult “balancing act” between risking being unable to enter a country and saving money by delaying renewal of their passports.
“Passport holders won’t want to waste the time remaining on an old passport by getting a new one too early, but in many cases, holidaymakers will need to ensure they have at least six months’ validity before travelling,” he said.
The double blow to travellers came about because of the controversial September rule. Until then, a Briton renewing their passport would have had any time left on their old document, up to a maximum of nine months, added to a new one.
That meant someone whose passport expired on July 1 2019, for example, would have been able to renew today and still be handed a fresh document valid until July 1 2029. Now, however, a new passport issued to them today will only be valid until April 13 2029.
A poll by Direct Line Travel Insurance of more than 2,000 Britons suggested passport holders have, on average, 159 days left on their travel document when they renew.
An estimated 3.6million new passports have been issued since September, according to the research, so it adds up to 567 million wasted days – or the equivalent of 155,000 10-year passports. With the cost of a new passport currently £85, Britons are, collectively, £13.2million out of pocket.
The changes have been widely criticised not just for short-changing travellers but because they may encourage people to renew at the last minute to get full value from their document. That is a risky strategy as many countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and Russia, only accept passports with at least six months left to run.
In its warnings to the public over a no-deal Brexit, the EU said that countries in the Schengen Area would treat British passport holders as “third country nationals” which means “you should have at least six months left on your passport from your date of arrival”.
According to the study, 27.4million people are planning to visit a country that would require six months remaining on their passport in the coming year. More than a third (36 per cent) plan to visit a Schengen country.
The top five tourist destinations are Spain with 13.8million visits from UK tourists in 2017/18, France (5.9m), Italy (3m), Portugal (2.3m) and USA (2.2m).
The Government last year increased the cost of a postal passport application from £72.50 to £85. For under 16s the cost is £58.50. Online applications cost £75 for adults and £49 for children.
The Home Office said the “carryover” change was made to bring the UK in line with other countries.
“Previously, the UK was the only country to exceed the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s guidelines for a maximum passport validity of ten years for adults, and five years for children,” it said.
“The price paid for a UK passport has never reflected the validity of that passport, rather it is based on the cost of processing the application.”