Why your VALID UK passport may NOT be acceptable for EU travel in the New Year

The Brexit negotiations are rumbling on and, until those are concluded, it is too early to know exactly how European and Worldwide travel from the UK will be affected in 2021 …

BUT there is a fundamental difference in the way that the EU and the UK deal with passports, which may mean that your valid passport is ALREADY technically out of date for travel to Europe! If you are hoping to cruise in Europe in the New Year then read on to find out how this may affect you.

While we were part of the EU we still had sovereign rights over the issuing of our (Burgundy covered EU) passports and until September ‘18 the UK had traditionally allowed renewals up to nine months before the expiry of the existing passport. This practice meant that a newly issued passport could have a period of ‘extra’ validity tacked on to the10 years life of the passport. So a UK Passport with an Issue Date of the 30 November 2010 could show an Expiry Date of anything up to 30 July 2021 and would still be valid for travel to the EU at the moment. 

BUT after the 31st December  - Deal or no Deal - we fall under different rules as a Non Member Country. This is not something that is likely to change due to the on going negotiations as we had opted out so this needs addressing now! The rules that will apply to us state that passports issued by Non-Member countries are regarded as EXPIRED once they have been valid for 10 years PLUS there must be six months validity left on a passport for it to be valid for entry to the EU - and also to travel to non EU members such as Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican City because they are part of the Schengen Zone agreement as well as places that are actually under EU control but not necessarily in Europe itself such as The Azores, the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe and Madeira. Travel to Ireland (Northern or Eire) will not be affected by this.

So GRAB YOUR PASSPORT and check! 

Remember… the ‘Expiry’ date is not relevant for travel to the EU. 

Your passport may still be ‘Valid’ and may not ‘Expire’ until well into 2021…

Your passport must have been issued less than nine years, six months ago…

BUT if it was issued before 30th June 2010 you will not be able to use it to enter the EU after 23.00 GMT (24.00 Central European Time) on 31 December 2020.  

PLEASE check your passport in plenty of time to renew it for your next cruise if needed!

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Happy portExploring!

 Love 

Cathy 

xx

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