UK citizens who are holding onto their old burgundy passports, issued before mid-2020, are vulnerable to the post-Brexit rules. All British passports issued after this period are dark blue and valid for exactly 10 years.
The new rules require UK passports to be issued less than 10 years before your arrival date in the EU, and must also be valid for at least 3 months beyond the planned return date.
An estimated 200 British travellers a day are being turned away from flights due to their passports not meeting this 10-year-passport rule.
Simon Calder, travel expert at the Independent, said that “easily a couple of hundred people a day” are being barred from boarding their flights.
“The concern around the date of issue is relevant only for travel to the European Union – not for the rest of the world, ” he added.
While UK passports are accepted globally, they may not meet EU-regulations even if they are technically valid. These specific rules apply to all EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland, but not Ireland.
“Gone are the days when you could travel to the EU at any point before your travel document expired; the UK is now a ‘third country’, with rules to match,” said Simon.
In fact, travellers to the EU can only stay for a maximum of 90 days within a six-month period in Schengen countries, a restriction that did not apply pre-Brexit.
Britishers are being urged to check the validity of their passport well in advance when booking their holiday, and not on the way to the airport to avoid being denied boarding.
The Home Office typically takes around three weeks for a passport renewal to be processed. Fast-track services are available for urgent passport applications, which can reduce processing time to one week.