Simon Calder travel advice: When to renew your passport before visiting Europe

Since Brexit, the rules on passport validity for British visitors to the European Union have tightened.

Gone are the days when you could travel to the EU at any point before your travel document expired; the UK chose to become a “third country”, with rules to match.

Added confusion has come with airlines including British Airways and easyJet wrongly denying boarding to passengers who were properly documented to travel – and Norway simply ignoring the rules to deport a blameless UK holidaymaker who had arrived for a ski trip with a valid British passport.

These are the key questions and answers based on EU rules.

While the UK was in the European Union, British passports were valid up to and including their expiry date for travel within the EU. But since the end of the Brexit transition phase, British passport holders are treated as “third country nationals” with stipulations about passport issue and expiry dates – together with limits on the length of stay almost everywhere in Europe.

For the avoidance of doubt, these are not “new EU rules” – they were decided while the UK was in the European Union.

The requirements for the Schengen Area – comprising most EU countries plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and a handful of micro-states – are crisply expressed on the Travel page of the European Union’s Your Europe site: “Your travel document must

(All children’s passports meet the first condition –?see below.)

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no problem travelling to Europe with a passport issued for over 10 years, so long as it is under 10 years old on the date of departure to the EU and will have three months remaining on the date of return.

In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise, direct them to pages 28 and 29 of the Practical Handbook for Border Guards, the official EU document. It says: “The requirement that the travel document must have been issued within the previous 10 years must be fulfilled at the day of entry (but not necessarily during the stay), provided that its validity extends until the end of the stay plus three months.” [Our italics]

The handbook also gives an example of a visitor who “arrives on 21 November 2022 for a 20 days stay in the EU with a passport issued on 23 November 2012 and valid until 23 March 2023” – making it clear they should be admitted.

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 2015 could show an expiry date of 31 July 2026.

This was fine around Europe and the world for decade – until Brexit, whereupon a longstanding rule kicked in. For non-members of the EU hoping to enter the Schengen Area, a passport must have been issued in the past 10 years.

With a passport issued on 31 October 2015, regardless of the expiry date, you’re not allowed to enter the EU after 31 October 2025. It is not clear whether arriving on the 10th birthday of the passport is legal, and you are not advised to try it.

Until September 2018 the government appeared unaware of the problem. Once the issue was identified, the practice of giving up to nine months’ grace ended abruptly.

No. There is no need to have a passport issued less than nine years, nine months ago. The two conditions are independent of one another.

The Migration and Home Affairs Department of the European Commission in Brussels told me: “Entry should be allowed to those travelling with passports issued within the previous 10 years at the moment of entry into the Schengen area.

“The condition that the passport must have been issued within the previous 10 years does not extend for the duration of the intended stay. It is enough if this condition is fulfilled at the moment of entry.

“To give a practical example, a non-EU traveller arriving on 1 December 2021 for a 20-days stay in the EU with a passport issued on 2 December 2011 and valid until 2 April 2022 will be allowed entry.”

For flights: you can 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.

Some organisations, regrettably, continue to publish incorrect information. Ignore it. Just remember those two tests:

EU countries must accept the additional validity.

No as far as I am aware. The concern around the date of issue is relevant only for travel to the European Union –?not for the rest of the world.

For destinations outside EU, the only significant consideration is the expiry date. And for destinations such as Australia, the US and Canada, your passport is valid up to and including this date.

So with that passport expiring on 31 July 2026, you could be in New York until that very day (though you would need to get a daytime flight back to avoid your passport running out en route.

Read the Independent’s guide to how many months you need left on your passport to travel worldwide

Passports for under-16s are valid for five years, so of course they all meet the “under 10 years” condition. But they are more likely to fall foul of the “three months remaining” condition because of the shorter duration of their passports.

For trips to the Schengen area (most EU nations plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and some small countries) British passport holders can stay a maximum of 90 days in any 180. That’s roughly three months in six.

it is tricky to explain, but I shall do my best. Imagine a calendar that stretches back almost six months from today. What happened more than 180 days ago is irrelevant. What counts is the number of days you were either inside (I) or outside (O) the Schengen Area in the past 180 days.

You can easily keep count on a calendar yourself, either printed or digital.

If “I” hits 90, you must leave that day and stay out for almost three months, to accumulate 90 “Os” in a row. Then you can go back in, for a maximum of 90 days.

During the course of a calendar year, it could work like this (assuming no travel to the EU in the previous six months).

For longer stays, some countries offer visas that allow British citizens to remain for months on end. If you get one of these, then the time spent in that country does not count towards the “90/180” rule – in other words, you can explore other EU countries with a fresh calendar.

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.

Cyprus is the only other EU-but-not-Schengen nation. The rules are the same: a passport issued in the past 10 years, and with three months validity remaining on the day of leaving the country. But time spent on the island does not contribute to the “90/180” day total.

No, even though Eurostar warns British passport holders : “Check that you have a clear page in your passport as it will need to be stamped with your travel date when you’re travelling to and from the EU.”

The EU’s Practical Handbook for Border Guards is explicit about a “document enabling a third-country national to cross the border [that] is no longer suitable for affixing a stamp, as there are no longer available pages”.

It says: “In such a case, the third-country national should be recommended to apply for a new passport, so that stamps can continue to be affixed there in the future.

“However, as an exception –?and particularly in the case of regular cross-border commuters –?a separate sheet can be used, to which further stamps can be affixed. The sheet must be given to the third-country national.

“In any case, the lack of empty pages in a passport is not, in itself, a valid and sufficient ground to refuse the entry of a person.”