Passports.

[MONKEY20]

With all the stories in the press this week, does anyone know P&O rules. We are due to cruise soon and our passport was  issued in september  2012 and expires in march 2023. Do P&O go by issue date or expiry date. i know P&O require you passport to be valid for 6 months after your return so if it was issue date we would only have 5 months.

 

iAN

[wowzz]

The rules now are that your pasport is valid for 10 years from date of issue, so your passport expiry date in effect is September 2022.

[cruise saint]

My passport has expired and I applied for a new one ten days ago.  If the ten weeks thing is correct, I should have it by the end of June, which would be fine as our cruise is 21st August.  The one thing that is worrying me is that when I used the passport tracker, it still doesn't say they have received my old passport even though I have proof via Royal Mail tracking that it was delivered and signed for on 20 April.

 

Does anyone have experience of how often the passport tracker updates?  Also what are others recent experiences of how long passports are taking to arrive?

[Thejuggler]

Currently going through a renewal and you need to remember just because someone in a post room signed for a document it doesn't mean it is at the department it needs to be at.

 

The passport I sent was also signed for on 20 April, we received the email that it was received on 25th.

 

There is confusion on the 10 year from issue matter, but for me using 10years from issue is a foolproof guide to know you have a valid passport.  Relying on 'flexibility' of airlines and ports and regulations is too much of a gamble.

[wowzz]

When we checked in for our Arcadia cruise, the check in person specifically pointed out that my wife's passport would not be valid once the 10 years from issue had elapsed. 

Not a problem as the date is in 2024.

I think the OP will need a personal interview to get a new passporr in time.

[zap99]

10 minutes ago, wowzz said:

When we checked in for our Arcadia cruise, the check in person specifically pointed out that my wife's passport would not be valid once the 10 years from issue had elapsed. 

Not a problem as the date is in 2024.

I think the OP will need a personal interview to get a new passporr in time.

Probable too late now, but I found myself in a similar situation. I used the post office renewal system. It took about 10 days. Super efficient. The tracker didn't seem to update and then said something like, received, processed, sent all within a few hours.

[purplesea]

I must have hit it lucky as I renewed mine online at the beginning of September last year and got it back in 8 days. It would probably have been quicker if I had gone straight down to the post office to post the old one instead of waiting a couple of days>

Hope you get it sorted.

[cruise saint]

1 hour ago, Thejuggler said:

Currently going through a renewal and you need to remember just because someone in a post room signed for a document it doesn't mean it is at the department it needs to be at.

 

The passport I sent was also signed for on 20 April, we received the email that it was received on 25th.

 

There is confusion on the 10 year from issue matter, but for me using 10years from issue is a foolproof guide to know you have a valid passport.  Relying on 'flexibility' of airlines and ports and regulations is too much of a gamble.

I'm aware that it needs to get to the relevant department, but six days seems plenty of time for that.  You receiving an email yesterday doesn't actually make me feel better, although I'm delighted for you.  Like I say, still plenty of time.

[jeanlyon]

We did one of ours online, uploaded a photograph, filled in everything and then posted the passport.  Got the new one back in 6 days.  I was amazed.  Much better way of doing it.

[cruise saint]

2 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

We did one of ours online, uploaded a photograph, filled in everything and then posted the passport.  Got the new one back in 6 days.  I was amazed.  Much better way of doing it.

How long ago was that Jean?  Mine was also done online and while I agree it was an easy process to apply, I haven't had any email from the passport office yet.

[Junction2]

I renewed mine earlier this year and it took about 3 weeks. My grand daughter is in the process of renewing hers and it has been over 5 weeks already - the tracker says still processing. Luckily her school trip isn't until October. 

[Eddie99]

Yours was super-efficient Jean!

 

cruise saint - here’s my recent experience

 

25 Feb - submitted online application

26 Feb - posted old passport

1March - received confirmation of application from Passport Office 

11 March - received confirmation that PO had received my old passport

21 March - informed that passport had been printed & would be delivered ‘in the next few days’

22 March - new passport received **

15 April - old passport returned

** you no longer need to be at home/sign 

 

My husband sent his application same day.  We were directed to send our old passports to different passport offices - me to Newcastle, him to Durham 🤔

His took about a week longer (but his old passport was returned before he got the new one!)🤔🤔

 

I’ll not make any political comment etc but I will add that, on first look, the new passport looks good.  I like the fact that the page you need seems to fall open automatically 

 

 

 

 

[CCFC]

I did mine online too and got it back exactly a week after posting it.

[cruise saint]

53 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

Yours was super-efficient Jean!

 

cruise saint - here’s my recent experience

 

25 Feb - submitted online application

26 Feb - posted old passport

1March - received confirmation of application from Passport Office 

11 March - received confirmation that PO had received my old passport

21 March - informed that passport had been printed & would be delivered ‘in the next few days’

22 March - new passport received **

15 April - old passport returned

** you no longer need to be at home/sign 

 

My husband sent his application same day.  We were directed to send our old passports to different passport offices - me to Newcastle, him to Durham 🤔

His took about a week longer (but his old passport was returned before he got the new one!)🤔🤔

 

I’ll not make any political comment etc but I will add that, on first look, the new passport looks good.  I like the fact that the page you need seems to fall open automatically 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this info.

[zap99]

As a slight, but on topic aside, when we went to Spain in October they stamped our passports on arrival and departure. I wondered if I would have enough pages to last 10 years. In Lanzarote this month they had an automatic digital passport reader gate thingy, like the UK. No stamp.

[MickD]

6 hours ago, MONKEY20 said:

With all the stories in the press this week, does anyone know P&O rules. We are due to cruise soon and our passport was  issued in september  2012 and expires in march 2023. Do P&O go by issue date or expiry date. i know P&O require you passport to be valid for 6 months after your return so if it was issue date we would only have 5 months.

 

iAN

P&O say you have to have 6 months left, but that’s only a guidance, it depends which countries your visiting, most European countries only require 90 days.

My Granddaughter just returned from a cruise with only 5 months left on her passport.

All this was confirmed with P&O a fortnight before the cruise.

It was explained to me that rather than state 3 months for one cruise 6 months for another, it was easier to use the 6 months guidance.

[LifeonMars]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We did one of ours online, uploaded a photograph, filled in everything and then posted the passport.  Got the new one back in 6 days.  I was amazed.  Much better way of doing it.

I found back in Aug 2020 that renewing for adults at the post office digitally was really easy, They completed and submitted it , even took photograph and accepted old passport. Took under a week and a cost of £91.50 Only certain Post Offices provide the service.

 

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/renew-adult-passport

Edited April 26, 2022 by LifeonMars

[AlanCruise]

Re passport being valid for only 10 years from date of issue (so not including any extra months added when it was issued), this is an EU thing. Does not apply for travel to others parts of the world.
So it depends where you are cruising.

But for peace of mind I think I will assume that you need 6 months before the 10 years from issue is up everywhere - even if not strictly needed.

[terrierjohn]

40 minutes ago, AlanCruise said:

Re passport being valid for only 10 years from date of issue (so not including any extra months added when it was issued), this is an EU thing. Does not apply for travel to others parts of the world.
So it depends where you are cruising.

But for peace of mind I think I will assume that you need 6 months before the 10 years from issue is up everywhere - even if not strictly needed.

I think new passports are now limited to 10 years, with no unused months carried over. So once the current old ones are renewed the problem will no longer exist.

[purplesea]

23 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I think new passports are now limited to 10 years, with no unused months carried over. So once the current old ones are renewed the problem will no longer exist.

My new passport only has 10 years on it.

[davecttr]

If 3 or 6 months left on the 10 year passport is required for travel then it in effect becomes a nine and a half or 9 and three quarter year passport?

[wowzz]

18 minutes ago, davecttr said:

If 3 or 6 months left on the 10 year passport is required for travel then it in effect becomes a nine and a half or 9 and three quarter year passport?

Yes, that is the case.  But that applies to passports from every country, not just the UK. 

[wowzz]

As a matter of interest, Simon Calder posted this today.  It appears that P&O's interpretation of the rules is incorrect. 

 

 

"While your passport is still valid up to and including its expiry date for travel to the US, Australia and many other nations, for travel to the European Union it must pass two more stringent tests: 

1. On the day of entry to the EU: issued less than 10 years ago (for travel today, your passport must be dated 30 April 2012 or later).
2. On the intended day of return from the EU: at least three months before expiry.

That is all. The rules are independent of each other, so your passport can celebrate its 10th birthday perfectly happily in Barcelona or Berlin as long as the expiry date works.

 

Yet even yesterday morning I had to politely ask Tui, the biggest holiday company in Britain, to remove a misleading statement on its website telling customers their passports “need to have at least six months validity on the day of departure”.

 

To its credit, the Tui mistake was corrected within an hour. Britain's biggest budget airline, easyJet, also reversed a similarly false assertion at my request. The many passengers denied boarding on easyJet flights when they should have been allowed to travel can now apply for recompense. On my scorecard only Ryanair is holding out with its own bizarre interpretation of European rules – with more future compensation claims racking up as each day passes. I have asked the Civil Aviation Authority and Airlines UK to intervene. But I really shouldn’t need to. International travel is tough enough already without inventing passport rules."

[emam]

On 4/26/2022 at 12:53 PM, zap99 said:

As a slight, but on topic aside, when we went to Spain in October they stamped our passports on arrival and departure. I wondered if I would have enough pages to last 10 years. In Lanzarote this month they had an automatic digital passport reader gate thingy, like the UK. No stamp.

 

I was wondering about this. So on a cruise you go to multiple ports, are they stamping your passport at every port? So if an average 14 night med cruise has six ports that will soon use up your empty pages, especially for those who cruise a few times a year. 

[zap99]

13 minutes ago, emam said:

 

I was wondering about this. So on a cruise you go to multiple ports, are they stamping your passport at every port? So if an average 14 night med cruise has six ports that will soon use up your empty pages, especially for those who cruise a few times a year. 

Yes, that would be silly. I guess if my passport gets full, it will mean lots of visits to that ' abroad' place.🤣