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An estimated 32 million British passport holders may doubtlessly fall foul of post-Brexit guidelines on validity for journey to the European Union, it has emerged.
Within the Brexit deal, the UK negotiated for British travellers to develop into “third-country nationals” – according to residents from dozens of different international locations resembling Venezuela and Samoa.
European Union nations don’t enable such travellers to enter on a passport issued over 10 years in the past. The identical applies within the wider Schengen Space, together with Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. UK guests to Eire are usually not topic to the restriction.
The Passport Workplace’s pre-Brexit coverage was to subject British journey paperwork legitimate for as much as 10 years and 9 months, taking account of the unspent time on a earlier passport. That posed no drawback whereas the UK was a member of the EU, however because the Brexit settlement took impact a whole lot of hundreds of individuals are believed to have misplaced their holidays due to inadvertently breaching the principles.
Airport sources contacted by The Impartial point out that, on a typical day, 200 outbound travellers are prevented from departing due to EU guidelines on subject and expiry dates. The rejection sometimes occurs at examine in or the departure gate.
The BBC cited the case of Nathan Barnes, a 31-year-old paramedic from Norwich, who was refused boarding on a flight to France.
He was on his strategy to Limoges along with his fiancé to go to household. Regardless of checking in for the flight on-line, he was stopped on the departure gate.
“My passport had been issued greater than 10 years beforehand,” he mentioned. “They have been very matter of reality about it, they simply mentioned ‘sorry you may’t board, off you pop’.”
“I used to be gutted, stunned actually. We had checked in on-line and thought it was tremendous,” he added.
The BBC’s Marc Ashdown has analysed Dwelling Workplace figures on passports issued as much as September 2018 that counsel 32 million individuals may doubtlessly fall foul of EU guidelines.
The Schengen Space additionally requires UK travellers to have at the very least three months remaining earlier than the expiry date on their passport on the day of departure from the European zone.
The Impartial has requested all the foremost airways if they may assist determine potential issues earlier by requesting passport information and assessing validity. Most say that the problem is simply too complicated, however Tui is engaged on an answer.
If a passenger is accurately denied boarding, journey insurance coverage won’t pay out to cowl consequent losses.
The EU and wider Schengen Space are the one areas with situations concerning the subject date of your passport. Many different international locations, such because the US, Canada and Australia, enable British passport holders to journey as much as and together with the expiry date of your passport – although some nations demand at the very least six months is remaining.
There isn’t a drawback travelling to Europe with a passport issued for over 10 years, as long as it’s below 10 years outdated on the date of departure to the EU and may have three months remaining on the date of return.
