Post-brexit passport mix-up costs family £3,000 holiday

A FAMILY missed out on a £3,000 holiday to Portugal after they were told a passport wasn’t valid – even though it did not expire until next year.

Nina Gurd travelled with her husband and three sons to the airport confident that she had more than the required three months of validity on her passport before she had to apply for a new one. When she arrived at the airport, however, she was told the expiry date was irrelevant, post-brexit.

“The lady at Bournemouth Airport said it needs to be within 10 years of the issue date,” she told the BBC.

Mrs Gurd’s passport was issued on 29 May 2012, so would have been due to expire next month. But she renewed it early, in 2012, and a further nine months were added, giving it a new expiry date of 28 February 2023.

Mrs Gurd, her husband John and their three sons: Jack, Harry and Charlie, were forced to return to their home in Botley, Hampshire, on 15 April, instead of going to the Algarve.

Mr Gurd said: “When we were booking our holiday, we were only ever asked for our passport numbers and the expiry dates, nothing else. But the expiry date is apparently meaningless.”

Portugal is one of 26 European countries within the Schengen Area of free movement. Before Brexit, UK citizens could travel freely within the area as it was a member of the EU, although it was not part of the Schengen Area.

Now some EU countries in the area are insisting passports must be no more than 10 years to run from the point of issue. Once the three-month expiry buffer is taken into account, a passport must have been issued with no more than nine years and nine months to run.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said that advice

‘Given there is this new rule, the Government, travel firms and airlines should ask the right questions’

published on its website warns that travellers may face problems if they have passports that last longer than 10 years. But Mr Gurd said the advice was “all incredibly vague”.

“Given there is this new rule, it should be easy enough for the government, travel companies and airlines to ask the right questions.

“It should be being flagged,” he added.

“We’ve got to get the message out there that, actually, the expiry date on your passport is meaningless.”