Simon Calder on all your passport questions
Q We are due to fly to Greece on 1 July for a week. To my horror I have realised that my son’s passport expires on 9 August 2024. I am caught by the “three-month rule”. My son does not have enough unexpired time on his passport to enable me to travel to Greece with him for our much-needed holiday. Worse, he is now 16 so must apply for a new adult passport in order to travel. While a renewed adult passport can be obtained in two days, so far as I can see there is a minimum of a week in obtaining a brand new adult passport. This would take us past the date of our flight and would mean we could not take our holiday. Is there any way to obtain a passport for my son before Sunday 30 June?
Name supplied
A I am so sorry: eight years after the vote to leave the European Union, thousands of British travellers are certain to lose their summer holidays due to inadvertent breaches of the post-Brexit passport rules:
Please apply immediately, online, for a renewal of the passport. Send off the old passport, special delivery, to the address given at the end of the application. Then cross your fingers. Straightforward online renewals are often completed within a week.
Alternatively, the holiday company may be prepared to let you shift the date a week or two later.
If this does not work, then all you can do is pass on the holiday to someone else. Assuming it is a package (flights and accommodation bought in a single transaction) you can transfer it for a payment of £50 or so. In your position, I would be sounding out family and friends in case this becomes necessary.
Q I have a query about the benefits of an Irish passport. When you live and work in Northern Ireland but have an Irish passport, you can’t get a European Health Insurance Card (Ehic). So when travelling within Europe, you need your British passport and UK Global Health Insurance Card (Ghic) to receive the free health treatment. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Alison McQ
A As I have written previously, in terms of documentation and ease of travel, the people who are in the strongest post-Brexit position are those with the good fortune to have Irish passports.
Thanks to being EU citizens they can speed through Schengen area formalities just as the British once did. And by 2 April they will comprise the only group of foreign people who don’t need an Electronic Travel Authorisation for the United Kingdom, due to the age-old Common Travel Agreement.
It is quite possible to be a UK citizen and an Irish passport holder at the same time. That is why I have said that I can understand why British citizens who have the good fortune to possess an Irish passport might choose to dispense with the UK version: it offers precious little extra benefit.
Having said all that, for the issue of healthcare in the European Union, the key consideration is your country of residence. If you live in Northern Ireland you qualify for a Ghic, which offers free or very heavily subsidised treatment at public hospitals across the EU.
The fact that you might also have an Irish passport is not relevant. Indeed, while it is always a good idea for a UK traveller to have a Ghic when travelling to Europe, it is not strictly essential to possess one in order to qualify for treatment on the same basis as local people. The hospital can make contact with the section of the UK NHS Business Services Authority that handles overseas medical care, and verify a patient’s status. But best to carry the card.
Q I am lucky enough to be a dual passport holder, UK and Irish. I believe that an Irish passport holder exiting the UK and entering the European Union will avoid the forthcoming biometric passport control issue. Coming back, however, how does this apply? For example: can I use my EU passport to enter the EU and when returning use my UK passport to enter the UK? And what happens if I book flights just using the EU passport?
Paul Connolly
A Once the European Union entry-exit system is running, the value of an EU passport for British travellers will increase still further. The wretched fingerprinting and facial biometric rules – to which we asked to become subject – are currently slated for introduction in November. Once the extra red tape becomes a reality, I predict a surge in applications for Irish passports for those fortunate enough to qualify.
Those of us with only a UK passport will have to line up for fingerprints to be taken (on first entry to the Schengen Area) and to have facial biometrics checked (on every arrival and departure). In contrast, EU passport holders will be able to breeze through a fast-track channel. The only check border officials can make is that the document is valid, and that it is yours.
Anyone like you who can swerve the system should do so. You will enjoy much smoother progress, and also reduce the queues for us single-passport unfortunates. You could happily enter and leave the EU and wider Schengen Area on your Irish passport and return to the UK on your British passport (there are no formal checks outbound). But I am not sure why you would want to do that: you can speed through the UK Border just as fast with an Irish passport as with a British document.
In your position I would leave the UK passport behind, and check in for every flight, ferry or train using your Irish one. Simple and effective.
Q I am lucky enough to have a big year of travel planned. It currently looks like this: South Korea in April, Antwerp in September and Japan in November. I’d also like to squeeze in a possible trip to either Florence or Berlin. My problem is: my passport was issued on 23 December 2015 and expires on 23 March 2026. I’m worried about the trip to Japan as I will have less than six months left by the time I go. What is your advice?
Olivia C
A Lots of people – including some in the travel industry – seem to believe there is some kind of globally ordained rule that your passport should be valid for six months longer than you intend to remain in a foreign country. Fortunately, there is no such edict. Each nation – or, in the case of the European Union, a group of states – decides its own policy. Many countries, including South Korea and Japan, allow tourists to use their passports up to the expiry dates.
To run through each of your targets, starting with South Korea: you may read that it is obligatory to obtain a K-ETA (Korea Electronic Travel Authorisation). It isn’t. For the whole of 2025, British visitors are exempt, during what the authorities say is a bid “to stimulate tourism”. That will save you some bureaucracy and 10,000 won (about £5.50). For Antwerp, Berlin or Florence: you can be anywhere in the European Union (and wider Schengen Area) up to 23 December 2025. That is both your passport’s 10th birthday, beyond which is not valid for entering the EU, and three months before it expires – the last day you can be in the zone. For Japan, you will just need a blank page for your visa stamp.
So make the most of the remaining life of your passport – and make a note in your calendar to renew it perhaps a year from now.
One caveat: if there is any likelihood that you may need to travel for work, or family reasons, to a country with a “six-month rule”, look at renewing after your Antwerp trip in September. Egypt, for example, wants six months until expiry on the day you enter.
Q I have two passports, French and British. At present, I always travel between the two countries on my French passport. If I used the British one to leave or enter France, the border officers would want to stamp it and might also ask about my length of stay – which is not relevant as I have dual nationality. But when the ETA [electronic travel authorisation] comes in for European visitors to the UK next month, if I travel on the French one I will need to apply for one. What is the best strategy?
Jaine F
ATravellers who are blessed with the benefit of a European Union passport as well as a UK travel document can swerve all the post-Brexit rules. Using the EU passport they speed through the (almost always) faster Schengen area queue on arrival at their destination, with no need to have their passport stamped. All that border staff can do is check that the EU document is valid and that it belongs to the holder. They will also be able to avoid the future need for biometric checks and the Etias permit.
Conversely, going through UK Border Control with a British document avoids any issues with length of stay and, soon, the ETA, which will be mandatory for all EU visitors (except the Irish) entering the UK from 2 April. So travel with both passports; use the French one for crossing into France, the British one for the UK Border.
You might be thinking: but I need to give passport information in advance to the airline. Just choose one passport for flight bookings and stick to it. You will need to produce it when boarding flights, but this is a simple ID check rather than anything affecting your immigration status. By the time you arrive at your destination, the airline has lost interest in you. Please note this advice applies only to an EU scenario. Some countries do not allow people to carry two passports.
The people who are in the strongest post-Brexit position are those with the fortune to be Irish. They don’t need an ETA for the UK thanks to the age-old Common Travel Agreement, and thanks to being EU citizens they can speed through Schengen Area formalities just as the British once did.
Q Can you help me with an urgent passport question but not one about expiry dates? I travel often to the EU for work and have no blank pages left in my passport. Will France let me in next week?
Name supplied
A Relax, at least for your trip to France. If you plan to travel no further than the European Union and the wider Schengen area (including Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), don’t worry about your passport filling up.
Some background: after Brexit, the UK asked for citizens to become “third-country nationals” in the eyes of the EU, and Brussels agreed. The Schengen border code insists: “The travel documents of third-country nationals shall be systematically stamped on entry and exit.” I fear you will not qualify for the very few exemptions, unless you are a member of a ship’s crew; a national of Andorra, Monaco or San Marino; or a dignitary “whose arrival has been officially announced in advance through diplomatic channels”.
Since the rules we asked for took effect, each visit to the Schengen area uses half a passport page: one stamp to enter, another to return. But even if your passport is completely full, frontier officials are required to provide an additional sheet of paper on which the stamps are applied.
Problems arise, though, if you wish to travel beyond Europe to a country that demands a blank page on which to stamp you in and out. For example, the Foreign Office warns: “To enter Thailand, your passport must have at least one blank page.” Many other non-EU countries have the same requirement, and India and South Africa both demand two clear-facing pages.
This is yet another consequence of Brexit that you may feel you were not warned about. But the problem is not permanent. From November this year, if all goes according to plan, the European Union’s entry-exit system will end manual passport stamping and replace it with electronic registration – except for travellers to Cyprus, which is remaining outside the Schengen area, and Ireland, where British residents do not require a passport and will not be stamped in or out.
Q I am flying from London to Edinburgh in early August. I have sent my passport off for renewal and I know it could take 10 weeks, which would mean the end of August. I checked with the airline’s customer service line to ask if I can use my photo driving licence. To my consternation, they said “no, it has to be a passport”. If the new one doesn’t arrive on time, can I cancel, get a refund and go by train instead?
Name supplied
A You have been misled. No airline asks for a passport for flights within the UK, and I can only imagine the customer service person didn’t quite grasp that this was a domestic flight. There is no legal requirement for photo ID on internal UK flights but airlines are allowed to ask for proof of identity to reduce ticket fraud (such as Person B using a ticket sold to Person A, breaking the conditions of contract and possibly making a profit into the bargain).
Ryanair asks all passengers aged 16-plus to carry “any photo ID which matches the passenger’s name in the booking”. For easyJet it’s something official: a driving licence or a passport that has expired in the past five years, for example. British Airways merely “advises” that you carry photographic identification, adding enigmatically: “This may be requested at certain points in your journey.” And Loganair needs photographic ID only when you are checking in luggage. This should be “government issued” but the definition is broad enough to include a bus pass.
As I have previously mentioned, the 10-week stipulation by HM Passport Office for a straightforward renewal such as yours is ridiculously pessimistic, and I will be surprised if you do not have the document within two weeks of posting the old one off. Finally, even though the government is enticing more people on board domestic flights by halving air passenger duty three months ago, the train is much more civilised and environmentally friendly. And unless you are travelling on a railcard-reduced ticket, you won’t be asked for ID. So go by rail next time, perhaps.
Q Later this year, I hope to travel to Australia via Sri Lanka and come back direct. I am lucky enough to have both British and Australian passports. What I’m confused about is which one do I use at each stage of the journey?
Charlotte E
A People who have two passports are in an excellent position, but you need to be careful about how you manage them.
Starting with first principles: two types of organisations are interested in the nationality of your passport. The immigration authorities of the country you are travelling to want to know that you are entitled to enter, and also want you to enter and leave their country on the same passport. (One exception to this: the UK has no checks on departure.) The airline wants to know that you are entitled to travel to the destination of your ticket. It is not interested in how you later leave that destination.
From the UK to Sri Lanka: the British government doesn’t care about when you leave. The airline wants to know that you have a valid passport and visa; for most people, that will be Sri Lanka’s electronic travel authorisation (ETA), price $50 (£38). Organise this with your British passport. At the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, use your British passport to enter and leave.
From Sri Lanka to Australia: on departure from Colombo, the airline will want to know that you are entitled to enter Australia. Therefore, present your Australian passport to the airline, which gives you the automatic right to enter with no additional formalities. This will apply even if you are on a connecting flight, eg on Singapore Airlines rather than SriLankan Airlines direct to Melbourne or Sydney. On arrival in Australia, show the passport control people your Australian passport. You should also use this to leave Australia.
From Australia to the UK: use your British passport for the flight – otherwise you will be asked, as an Australian, to obtain a UK ETA. On arrival in the UK, just go through the eGates with your British passport. If this all seems too complicated, just apply for the free Australian eVisitor pass, which is fast and easy to obtain, and do the whole thing on your British passport.
Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @SimonCalder
Yusuf makes astonishing return to Reform just 48 hours after quitting
Zia Yusuf has announced he is returning to Reform UK – just 48 hours after quitting as the party’s chair.
The businessman, who said his decision to leave was an error that came as the result of exhaustion, will take up a new role in the party following peace talks with leader Nigel Farage.
While his formal title has not been decided, he is expected to lead Reform’s Elon Musk-inspired Doge unit, modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Donald Trump in the US.
Reform’s Doge UK team was set up to identify spending cuts in councils the party now controls and was formally launched this week.
Mr Yusuf will also oversee some aspects of policymaking, fundraising and media appearances for the party. A new party chair is expected to be appointed next week and a deputy chair will be hired too.
It comes just two days after Mr Yusuf said he no longer believes “working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time”.
While Mr Farage is pleased about his ex-chair’s decision to rejoin the party’s leadership, it is unlikely to resolve growing concerns about the Reform leader’s ability to work with others.
Mr Yusuf announced plans to quit the role after describing Sarah Pochin – who won last month’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election for the party – as “dumb” after she challenged Sir Keir Starmer over the legality of women wearing the burqa in the UK during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
But speaking to The Times on Saturday alongside Mr Farage, Mr Yusuf said his decision to quit was an “error”.
“When I pushed that tweet out it was a coming together of a bit of exhaustion and a feeling that all I got in return for it was abuse”, he said.
“I was doing so many things, in the foreground and in the background. Anybody who has been part of a high-growth start-up outside of politics will sympathise and empathise with that.
“What has happened since then is that I’ve been inundated with messages from Reform members and supporters, who were saying they were devastated and heartbroken and asking me to really reconsider my decision.”
Mr Yusuf added: “It made me realise that in that moment I was turning my back on that – and I didn’t want to do that. I realised I did have an important role to play. I spoke to Nigel and said I don’t mind saying I made an error. It was a function of exhaustion.”
The ex-Reform chair – who has been the target of anger by many activists over several months – was hit with a tirade of abuse on social media in the wake of his remarks about Ms Pochin.
But asked about the row over banning the burqa, Mr Yusuf – a practicing Muslim – said: “I certainly did not resign because I have any strong views about the burqa itself.”
He admitted that he felt blindsided by Ms Pochin’s decision to ask about a ban at PMQ’s, saying it was an “internal miscommunication issue”.
“I learnt about it for the first time on X,” he said. “I don’t mind saying that it frustrated me. But these things happen. I’m not an MP, it’s perfectly reasonable for me not to have known about it and Sarah did inform the other MPs.”
Mr Yusuf added that he would probably vote to ban the burqa if there was a vote and he was in parliament, but added: “Philosophically I am always a bit uneasy about banning things which, for example, would be unconstitutional in the United States, which such a ban no doubt would be”.
He continued: “I do not think it is one of the most important issues British people face when they go about their day-to-day lives.”
The latest Reform fracture came just months after MP Rupert Lowe was ousted from the party following a row which began in December.
Just hours before he announced he was rejoining the party, Mr Farage said Mr Yusuf had “snapped” after receiving a “tirade of personal racist abuse” on social media.
The Reform leader suggested Mr Yusuf was “burnt out”, saying the “very hard extreme right” was to blame for the abuse.
Mr Farage told BBC News: “Zia regrets what he said and did the other day. It was a combination of 11 months hard work and exhaustion.”
Mr Farage said Mr Yusuf “gets even more racial abuse on X than ever” when Islam is being discussed.
“In retrospect he knows a lot of it is bots trying to damage Reform. It is not Reform members. Yes some of it is the alt right, but there’s a lot of bots. He regrets it and wants to continue working for us.”
Win a luxury ticket package for two to this year’s Wilderness Festival
Music fans can win a luxury package for two to this year’s Wilderness Festival, all courtesy of Audi.
Wilderness returns this year to the picturesque nature reserve at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, and will be headlined by rock band Supergrass, Nineties rave duo Orbital, and Brit Award-winning, Grammy-nominated indie-rock duo Wet Leg.
Completing the headliner lineup are Basement Jaxx, who are making their return to live shows for the first time in over a decade, as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of their groundbreaking album, Remedy.
The winner will receive a pair of complimentary festival tickets and boutique accommodation in a luxury cabin for two. They will also be treated to an Audi Kitchen experience and, for the ultimate luxury, your own private chauffeur to take you and your guest to the festival and return journey.
Enter the prize draw here.
Wilderness Festival is known for its eclectic music lineup, which this year includes performances from pop singer Lapsley, singer-songwriter Bess Atwell, Scottish musician Jacob Alon and DJ Craig Charles.
At The Sanctuary and Spa, guests will discover an oasis of calm, whether that means taking part in disco yoga or a workshop to explore your sensuality. Highlights include boating, massage treatments, sauna rituals, hot tubs, a wild sauna, Wim Hof method ice baths and wild swimming.
Gourmet food offerings can be found at Ben Quinn’s long table banquet in the woods, a once-in-a-lifetime experience set in the woods and lit by chandeliers. There, Quinn and his team will serve up a feast of flavour cooked right in front of you five courses of carefully curated, responsibly sourced, local and seasonal ingredients.
Elsewhere, attendees can join a number of talks, comedy sets and conversations, from Food Stories with Jay Rayner to a live recording of Jamie Laing’s podcast, Great Company.
Comedian, writer and NHS doctor Matthew Hutchinson will share a sharp and moving look at life on the frontline of British healthcare, while cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith will uncover a bold and fascinating alternative history of female friendship.
The prize draw will open for entries at 3pm (BST) on 7 May 2025 and close at 3pm BST on 17 June 2025. Only one entry per person is permitted for the Prize Draw. Terms and conditions apply.