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New rules for travel to the EU from 1st January 2021

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LAX54

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Just looking at the Gov.UK website and it says:

On the day you travel, you’ll need your passport to both:

  • have at least 6 months left
  • be less than 10 years old (even if it has 6 months or more left)
Bur surely all Passports are less than 10 years old, that is the maximum validity ?

Or am I mssing something here ?
 
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Bletchleyite

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When you renewed a UK passport it used to be possible to add the previous validity onto the new one, thus making it valid for a bit more than 10 years.
 

Ianno87

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Just looking at the Gov.UK website and it says:

On the day you travel, you’ll need your passport to both:

  • have at least 6 months left
  • be less than 10 years old (even if it has 6 months or more left)
Bur surely all Passports are less than 10 years old, that is the maximum validity ?

Or am I mssing something here ?

If you renew your passport early, don't you get a passport with longer than 10 years validity, i.e. anything remining on the old passport is added onto it...?

So you could end up with a passport whose overall validity is more than 10 years?



Anyway, glad to see the "benefits" of leaving the EU and "taking back control" finally being released <eyes roll emoticon>
 

gordonthemoron

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I think that you could get a passport which was valid for up to 10 years and 9 months, but that is no longer the case

My current passport is valid for 10 years and about 7 months
 

LNW-GW Joint

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You could/can travel in the EU within the exact validity of your passport, right up to its last day.
From Jan 1 they are imposing non-EU rules which means at least 6 months validity, and a 90-day maximum visa-free stay.
There are some other rules banning identity cards which the UK never had but our EU friends could use to enter the UK.
It also looks like the EHIC cards will not be valid after 31 Dec either, unless Boris relents on his hard-line deal.
Over 90 days in the EU and you will need a visa.
Soon there will also be an electronic EU pre-travel authorisation scheme like ESTA for the US.
 

ainsworth74

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You could/can travel in the EU within the exact validity of your passport, right up to its last day.
From Jan 1 they are imposing non-EU rules which means at least 6 months validity, and a 90-day maximum visa-free stay.
There are some other rules banning identity cards which the UK never had but our EU friends could use to enter the UK.
It also looks like the EHIC cards will not be valid after 31 Dec either, unless Boris relents on his hard-line deal.
Over 90 days in the EU and you will need a visa.
Soon there will also be an electronic EU pre-travel authorisation scheme like ESTA for the US.

Yeah there's the benefits I've been looking forward to since we took back control!
 

LAX54

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You could/can travel in the EU within the exact validity of your passport, right up to its last day.
From Jan 1 they are imposing non-EU rules which means at least 6 months validity, and a 90-day maximum visa-free stay.
There are some other rules banning identity cards which the UK never had but our EU friends could use to enter the UK.
It also looks like the EHIC cards will not be valid after 31 Dec either, unless Boris relents on his hard-line deal.
Over 90 days in the EU and you will need a visa.
Soon there will also be an electronic EU pre-travel authorisation scheme like ESTA for the US.

I could follow most of it, well all of it :) it was the less than 10 year bit that threw me ! so if I read it right from the post abovem if you have a passport that is vaid for 10 years 9 months, and you wnat to go beofre that 9 months is up, you will have to get another new passport ?
 

reb0118

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No, I read it as if you had a passport valid for e.g. 10 years & 9 months you could not travel to the EU during the last 15 months of its validity.
 

reb0118

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Upon second thoughts I think you could travel up to the 10 years in my example above. E.g.:-

10 years 9 months = 10 years.
10 years 6 months = 10 years.
10 years 3 months = 9 years 9 months.
10 years = 9 years 6 months.
 

Ralph Ayres

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I think I'm missing something here as well. Aren't they effectively saying the passport runs out 6 months before its expiry date? Perhaps they'll try that with season tickets next!
 

Bletchleyite

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I think I'm missing something here as well. Aren't they effectively saying the passport runs out 6 months before its expiry date? Perhaps they'll try that with season tickets next!

This is the norm for going to non-EU countries now, and it's to reduce the risk of expiry while already in the country.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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It's also reciprocal, and the "benefit" to the UK is being able to refuse people who arrive at the last minute and overstay.
"Take back control" and all that.
We don't seem to want a more flexible arrangement with the EU, so they are doing the same to us.
I prefer free movement personally.

The EHIC thing is more like Groucho Marxism (Any club that would have me for a member, I wouldn't want to join).
 

jamesontheroad

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I think I'm missing something here as well. Aren't they effectively saying the passport runs out 6 months before its expiry date? Perhaps they'll try that with season tickets next!

Yes. It's been that way with the USA and many other countries outside the EU (and for non-EU visitors to the EU) as a means of reducing the likelihood of illegal overstaying. I had a student in a group of mine denied entry to South Africa for having insufficient validity on her passport. It wasn't picked up by the airline on departure and as a result she was held in a cell at Johannesburg Airport and deported at her own expense back to the UK 12 hours later. Twelve hours in the air, twelve hours in custody and then another twelve hours back to the UK.
 

deep south

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They stopped adding the "unused" time a few months ago, so that the validity of "more than 10 years" can't happen in 2021....
 

Vespa

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My passport ran out in March, when I checked about renewing online it did say any unused time will not be carried over.

Since foreign travel is out in the meantime, I'm not going to renew as these month will be wasted and I won't get them back, I'll just wait til the pandemic is over, it's too unstable at the moment and things can change in a matter of days with a new lockdown.
 

Taunton

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It doesn't help that passport renewal times have currently skyrocketed (yet again). Mine runs out in Jan 2021. Do I renew now and find it turned round in weeks and I've wasted validity, or wait until Christmas and find I can't go anywhere for 6 months?
 

Starmill

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I think that you could get a passport which was valid for up to 10 years and 9 months, but that is no longer the case

My current passport is valid for 10 years and about 7 months
As others have alluded to, this used to be possible but isn't any more.
 

Taunton

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Is this because you think there may be another lockdown?
Sorry, misunderstanding. I meant wait to apply until close to current passport expiry, as they don't do 10 years from previous expiry any more, and then find they take 6 months to process it and I have no passport.
 

morrisobrien

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Sorry, misunderstanding. I meant wait to apply until close to current passport expiry, as they don't do 10 years from previous expiry any more, and then find they take 6 months to process it and I have no passport.
Thank you.....I am in the same boat as you with a March 2021 expiry.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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There must be a fair chance the new setup won't be ready on 1 Jan 2021; either the systems won't be ready or the personnel needed to run it won't be in place.
The government has already said it will be having a "light touch" on new freight documentation for the first 6 months.
What we don't know is how strictly the EU states (particularly France) will implement the new rules for Brits.
The mood music at the moment is not good, as we pursue the last ounce of a hard-line Brexit.
 

AM9

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There must be a fair chance the new setup won't be ready on 1 Jan 2021; either the systems won't be ready or the personnel needed to run it won't be in place.
The government has already said it will be having a "light touch" on new freight documentation for the first 6 months.
What we don't know is how strictly the EU states (particularly France) will implement the new rules for Brits.
The mood music at the moment is not good, as we pursue the last ounce of a hard-line Brexit.
That doesn't matter, - we're taking back control. So when cross-channel traffic is in complete chaos, we can sit back as it will just be a case of fog in channel, - Europe cut off! :)
 

Wolfie

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Sorry, misunderstanding. I meant wait to apply until close to current passport expiry, as they don't do 10 years from previous expiry any more, and then find they take 6 months to process it and I have no passport.
Just to make life better there is, courtesy of CV-19 and knock-ons, reportedly a 400k backlog in HMPO.
 

Wolfie

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There must be a fair chance the new setup won't be ready on 1 Jan 2021; either the systems won't be ready or the personnel needed to run it won't be in place.
The government has already said it will be having a "light touch" on new freight documentation for the first 6 months.
What we don't know is how strictly the EU states (particularly France) will implement the new rules for Brits.
The mood music at the moment is not good, as we pursue the last ounce of a hard-line Brexit.
The EU currently plans to treat UK citizens to the full delights of non-EU, non-Schengen status...

I have the option of an Irish passport...
 

Romsey

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The EU currently plans to treat UK citizens to the full delights of non-EU, non-Schengen status...

I have the option of an Irish passport...

You're very lucky.
My Irish ancestry goes back too many generations to claim the right to an Irish passport.
 

alex397

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I'm going to be looking into applying for an Italian passport, as you can apply if you have Italian ancestry. It's not quite as simple as that though, and I've only skim read the requirements, but it's something I'm going to on look into properly.

I do find it a bit funny that to get our 'freedom', we now have less rights on our passport and more bureaucracy to deal with.
 

XAM2175

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The government has already said it will be having a "light touch" on new freight documentation for the first 6 months.
What we don't know is how strictly the EU states (particularly France) will implement the new rules for Brits.

Michel Barnier said about a month ago in an appearance before the House of Lords Select Committee on the EU that regardless of any phased approach taken by the UK, the EU will be treating the UK as a "third" (wholly-foreign) country from 1 January 2021.
 
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