Passport requirements

[MickD]

My Wife is taking my Granddaughter on a weeks med cruise in a couple of weeks for her 18th.

Tried to put in passport details, which it wouldn’t accept.

Then unfortunately noticed that her passport will only have 5 months left after return from cruise.

There is no legal rule about having 6 months left on passport to enter the eu in fact it’s 90 days left on passport.

Are P&O just following government guidelines by quoting 6 months and not following actual law?

Am trying to get through to customer services, but looks as though it may have to be a trip to London to get her an emergency passport 😡

[MickD]

Update, got through to customer services , confirmed only 90 days required on passport for the eu, not 6 months, panic over 😁

[indiana123]

Oh that's good news. Now they can enjoy the build up and get excited planning it all.  (clothes ,make up, formal nights, tips, and all our other favourite subjects!!!)🙃 

[Ataraxia]

Passports

If you are a British Citizen, a full passport is required for all cruises. If you DO NOT HOLD A BRITISH CITIZEN PASSPORT, your passport/ travel documentation/visa requirements may be different. You should check with your travel agent or our preferred visa supplier, CIBT, on 0207 620 6487 to ensure you have the correct documentation. The following passport and visa information is for British Citizens only. Non British Citizen passport holder requirements may differ. Please check with the Embassies of the countries you are travelling to for the most up-to-date information. You must have 6 months validity in your passport after your date of return and we recommend that you have some blank pages in your passport for entry/exit stamps. Children need their own passports.

 

This is from the P&O website

[lindylooellalouise]

5 hours ago, MickD said:

Update, got through to customer services , confirmed only 90 days required on passport for the eu, not 6 months, panic over 😁

Please check again we did a seacation round the British isles in July and p and o would not accept our passports as we only had 5 months left on them.

[lindyloo22]

I’m sure you must have 6 months left on passport on your return to the uk

(what p&o ask for).

 

[jake 26]

There is also the 10 year rule when entering the EU. Your passport must not be older than 10 years from when it was last renewed. Many UK passport holders had added extra months if they renewed early so the passport may run for many months over 10 years.

My passport was renewed in Sept 2012 but the expiry date is May 2023. When I checked for EU use and applied the 6 month validity rule it had to be renewed by March 2022, so about 14 months before the stated expiry date. I've just renewed it.

[molecrochip]

Yes, two rules apply:

 

10 Year rule

Many countries changed to only accepting passports that were issued within the last 10 years. Accordingly, the passport office no longer issue longer than 10 years (i.e. don't roll-over the last 9 months on renewal).

 

3 month rule (also known as 6 month rule)

When entering Europe and some other countries your passport must have 3 months left to run from the day your leave. As you can stay in most countries for 90 days on a visitors visa, this is the reason that travel providers ask for 6 months). However, where you can prove that you have homeward travel booked, and the authorities have no reason to suggest you will overstay that booking, your passport is good as long as it has 3 months beyond that date.

[bbtablet]

O.K. - but the key issue, will the P&O website continue to insist on 6 months on an EU countries cruise, despite what molecrochip and MickD say above?

I am going to be caught if the 6 month rule is applied so I will just renew my passport to have done with it and "lose" some stated qualifying time - it is only £7.50 per year for a 10 year passport after all.

[Dinglebert]

20 hours ago, bbtablet said:

O.K. - but the key issue, will the P&O website continue to insist on 6 months on an EU countries cruise, despite what molecrochip and MickD say above?

I am going to be caught if the 6 month rule is applied so I will just renew my passport to have done with it and "lose" some stated qualifying time - it is only £7.50 per year for a 10 year passport after all.

Probably so if it were me I would be getting a new one.

[MickD]

Update just boarded Britannia, no problems with passport, only 90 days required for this cruise France & Spain 

[molecrochip]

On 3/26/2022 at 3:13 PM, bbtablet said:

O.K. - but the key issue, will the P&O website continue to insist on 6 months on an EU countries cruise, despite what molecrochip and MickD say above?

I am going to be caught if the 6 month rule is applied so I will just renew my passport to have done with it and "lose" some stated qualifying time - it is only £7.50 per year for a 10 year passport after all.

Yes, if the website says six months and someone turns up with only five, but the ship is only going to France, its no issue. If the website states three month and the passenger turns up with just two months validity, there is a problem.

 

My point being, the website/official guidance is to have more than the legal minimum. That doesn't stop P&O letting you travel with just the legal minimum. But why take the risk?

[Megabear2]

33 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

But why take the risk?

Judging by the current passport office delays it might be more risky to renew!

[vitrocmax]

I applied to renew my passport (which would have expired 2 days into my cruise) on 22nd February, the replacement arrived 15th March.

 

I took a photograph using my mobile, the application process checks that the picture is acceptable. Since it was a replacement passport and all the details matched the original (except for my 'new' beard!) the renewal was quicker than I expected.

[Megabear2]

15 minutes ago, vitrocmax said:

I applied to renew my passport (which would have expired 2 days into my cruise) on 22nd February, the replacement arrived 15th March.

 

I took a photograph using my mobile, the application process checks that the picture is acceptable. Since it was a replacement passport and all the details matched the original (except for my 'new' beard!) the renewal was quicker than I expected.

Excellent. My friends applied 8 months ago. Nothing after two months so chased. TNT who have the delivery contract admitted they lost both the new and old ones. Payment refund organised, took 6 weeks to come back to card.  Applied again. Another 6 weeks then told they had to return old passport which of course they couldn't do as it had been sent before and lost by TNT as acknowledged. Now nearly 8 months on the debate rages. Thankfully they have nothing booked!

[purplesea]

I must have been lucky when I applied to renew my passport. The government website said allow 5 weeks so I thought I would allow at least 10 weeks. Applied online and got my new passport back in 8 days😲It would possibly have been quicker it I had gone down to the Post Office the same day instead of 2 days after filling in the online forms!