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An estimated 32 million British passport holders might probably 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 turn into “third-country nationals” – in keeping with residents from dozens of different international locations akin to 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 will not be topic to the restriction.
The Passport Workplace’s pre-Brexit coverage was to difficulty 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 downside 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 foundations.
Airport sources contacted by The Unbiased point out that, on a typical day, 200 outbound travellers are prevented from departing due to EU guidelines on difficulty and expiry dates. The rejection usually 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 method 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 stated. “They had been very matter of reality about it, they only stated ‘sorry you may’t board, off you pop’.”
“I used to be gutted, shocked actually. We had checked in on-line and thought it was high quality,” he added.
The BBC’s Marc Ashdown has analysed Residence Workplace figures on passports issued as much as September 2018 that recommend 32 million individuals might probably fall foul of EU guidelines.
The Schengen Space additionally requires UK travellers to have at the least three months remaining earlier than the expiry date on their passport on the day of departure from the European zone.
The Unbiased has requested all the most important airways if they might assist establish potential issues earlier by requesting passport information and assessing validity. Most say that the difficulty is just too complicated, however Tui is engaged on an answer.
If a passenger is appropriately denied boarding, journey insurance coverage is not going to pay out to cowl consequent losses.
The EU and wider Schengen Space are the one areas with circumstances concerning the difficulty 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 least six months is remaining.
There isn’t any downside travelling to Europe with a passport issued for over 10 years, as long as it’s beneath 10 years outdated on the date of departure to the EU and can have three months remaining on the date of return.
