PASSPORTS
The following post has appeared on other sites. It is confusing people so I sent it to the British Embassy in Madrid.
THE POST.
Sorry about the long message. But the following is posted on facebook. Is it correct as a lot of people sre very worried. Thank you for any help.
The Post.
," CHECK YOUR PASSPORTS !!! Apparently new Brexit rules you need 15 months left on your passport to fly ?
Cheryl Washbourne is with Kevin Washbourne.
1dntSspnutuo6n Jsouredldty ·
***Sorry in advance for an extra long winded status!But anyone travelling abroad soon please read?I’m putting this out there to help anyone who might be like us and totally unaware of this***
So today we were all checked in at Newcastle airport to travel to Palma. We headed to the gate to board the flight and handed over our passports, to be told we couldn’t travel because my passport was out of date ?!!
Now if you’re like us you’ll probably think the same that 6 months or more is adequate for travel. However this is NOT the case!! If you look at the expiry date on my passport, it expires in April next year, or so I thought. But under new Brexit rules you now need to count from the issue date, taking away any “add ons as the airline put it” meaning my passport had actually expired.
The staff said they’ve turned away so many as people don’t realise but it’s your own responsibility to check the Gov website and that the links are on their website!
The biggest thing is though I have:
*checked in online with those passport details
*completed the government forms with those passport details to be issued a QR travel/entry code
*paid and had PCR fit to fly tests with those passport details
*ordered the Day 2 test kits arriving on Monday with those passport details.
And not one of those entries has flagged this information up ?
Families in a far worse position than us losing full holidays and ours was only a weekend, but absolutely gutted to say the least and so disappointed we couldn’t get there to surprise our friends. Would hate it to happen to anyone else. So everyone check your passports and check the Gov websites etc….Myself and many others had to learn the hard and expensive way today ?
Oh and you may also be forced to totally embarrass ones self and publicly cry like ME?"??
THE REPLY FROM THE BRITISH EMBASSY.
From 1 January 2021, you must have at least 6 months left on an adult or child passport to travel to most countries in Europe. If you are legally resident in Spain and in scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, the requirement to have 6 months left on your passport does not apply if you are entering or transiting to Spain, but will apply if you are visiting another EU member state. If you renewed your current passport before the previous one expired, extra months may have been added to its expiry date. Any extra months on your passport over 10 years may not count towards the 6 months needed. Use the passport checker at https://www.gov.uk/check-a-passport-travel-europe-1-january-2021 to check if your passport is valid for travel. Visit gov.uk/livinginspain for further information.
Hope this helps.
