Which passport issues could stop me travelling?

In our well-travelled world, it’s relatively easy to end up with a less-than-pristine passport. Crumpled edges aren’t usually a problem, but ripped pages, or scuffed sides, could be enough to impact your travel experience. According to the Passport Office, the document must be replaced if “it has more than reasonable wear and tear”. Examples of “damage” include ink spillages, missing or detached pages and discolouration.

Then there are the stamps. These little ink blots might not be the proud traveller’s badges of honour they once were, but they can still have a profound impact on where you can go – particularly when they stir up international diplomatic issues. When President Trump left office, he added Cuba to a list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism”, alongside North Korea, Iran and Syria, meaning that those who have been to Cuba since the decision can no longer travel to the US under the Esta visa-waiver scheme. Instead, they must apply for a visa (for most, the B-2 tourist visa) in order to visit the States; a much lengthier – and more expensive – process.

The increasingly popular trend for “novelty stamps” can cause headaches down the line, too, as it did in 2020, when a tourist was prevented from boarding a plane to Thailand, as the souvenir Machu Picchu stamp she’d collected on her trip apparently invalidated her passport.

The proliferation of stamps also means that it is easy for frequent travellers to run out of space. The post-Brexit requirement for entry and exit marks for every European nation has meant that pages fill up faster, and while the introduction of electronic gates and biometric passports is likely to ease the issue, travellers who currently cross borders regularly can easily find their passports reaching capacity. This can be a costly situation (a new adult passport starts at £82.50), but is further complicated by countries such as South Africa, which require tourists who are entering with visas to have two blank facing pages in their passport.

There are less obvious stumbling blocks to be wary of too. The date of expiry, one might assume, indicates the final day one can travel with the document. But in countries such as Canada, Egypt, Kenya, Thailand and Vietnam, there must be at least six months of validity left before departure, while all countries in the Schengen Agreement (including France, Spain and Italy) require three months validity after the date you leave.

It’s also worth paying extra attention to the issue date of your passport. Adult UK passports are typically valid for 10 years, but if a passport is renewed with months remaining, these are added on – meaning some people have passports valid for more than 10 years. Nevertheless, countries in the Schengen area explicitly use the date the passport was issued as the “starting” point, and might therefore class a passport as “expired” months before the expiry date listed on its information page.

All things considered, it’s vital you give your passport one last glance before you travel. Though the postpandemic Passport Office backlog has, thankfully, lessened, waiting times for a new document still sit at about three weeks and are prone to fluctuate. So to avoid a frantic dash, make sure to check the date, stamps and pages well in advance of your trip.

i Pristine passports please: expiry dates, ink spills, torn pages and novelty stamps could all potentially cause problems