Family £3k out of pocket and unable to board flight due to Brexit passport rule

Nina Gurd went to the airport confident she had more than the required three months before the expiry date, which had been extended when she renewed her passport

A family of three have been left £3,000 out of pocket due to a little known Brexit passport rule that resulted in them being unable to travel abroad.

Nina Gurd was told she was unable to board a flight to Portugal because her passport expires in February 2023.

The decision to ban Ms Gurd stems from a post-Brexit rule for entry to a group of European countries.

She went to the airport confident she had more than the required three months before the expiry date, which had been extended when she renewed her passport.

But she was told the expiry date was irrelevant, she explained to the BBC.

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

Mrs Gurd’s passport was originally issued on 29 May 2012, meaning it would have been due to expire next month.

But she renewed it early and another 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, missing out on their holiday in 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.

For many years, until September 2018, the UK had a generous policy of allowing credit for “unspent” time when renewing a passport, issuing documents valid for up to 10 years and nine months.

So a passport issued on 31 October 2012 could show an expiry date of 31 July 2023.

This was fine around Europe and the world for decade – until Brexit, whereupon a longstanding rule kicked in.

Now some EU countries in the Schengen Area are insisting passports must be no more than 10 years old from the point of issue.

Once the three-month expiry buffer is taken into account, a passport needs to have been issued no more than nine years and nine months ago.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said that the advice published on its website has, for several years, warned travellers they may face problems if they have a passport that lasts 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.”

The Travel page of the European Union ’s Your Europe site explains: “If you are a non-EU national wishing to visit or travel within the EU, you will need a passport valid for at least three months after the date you intend to leave the EU country you are visiting, which was issued within the previous 10 years.”

How much time you need on your passport depends on the country you’re visiting. Holidaymakers are encouraged to check the travel advice for the country they are visiting before going abroad.

For missed flights, you may be able to claim denied boarding compensation (either £220 or £350, depending on the length of the flight) and associated costs – for example, booking another flight on a rival airline, or for wasted car rental and hotel expenses that cannot be reclaimed.

For British visitors to Ireland, there are no limits on passport validity. Indeed, a passport is not legally mandatory for British travellers to the republic, though some airlines insist on it.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania have identical rules to the Schengen Area: passport issued in the past 10 years, and with three months validity remaining on the day of leaving the country. But time spent in any of these nations does not contribute to the “90/180” day total.