Hampshire family fall foul of post-Brexit passport rule

A family have lost £3,000 on a holiday after the mum was not allowed to board a flight due to a post-Brexit rule for entry to a group of European countries.

Nina Gurd was told her passport, which expires in February, was not valid for travel to Portugal.

She went to the airport confident she had more than the required three months before the expiry date, which had been extended when she renewed her passport.

But she was told the expiry date was irrelevant, she explained to the BBC.

"The lady at Bournemouth Airport said it needs to be within 10 years of the issue date," she explained.

Mrs Gurd's passport was originally issued on 29 May 2012, meaning it would have been due to expire next month.

But she renewed it early and another nine months were added, giving it a new expiry date of 28 February 2023.

Mrs Gurd, her husband John and their three sons Jack, Harry and Charlie, were forced to return to their home in Botley, Hampshire, on 15 April, missing out on their holiday in the Algarve.

Mr Gurd said: "When we were booking our holiday, we were only ever asked for our passport numbers and the expiry dates, nothing else.

"But the expiry date is apparently meaningless."

Portugal is one of 26 European countries within the Schengen Area of free movement.

Prior to Brexit, travellers from the UK could travel within the area without border controls as the country was a member of the European Union, although Britain was not part of the Schengen Agreement.

Now some EU countries in the Schengen Area are insisting passports must be no more than 10 years old from the point of issue. Once the three-month expiry buffer is taken into account, a passport needs to have been issued no more than nine years and nine months ago.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the BBC that the advice published on its website has, for several years, warned travellers they may face problems if they have a passport that lasts longer than 10 years.

But Mr Gurd said the advice was "all incredibly vague".

"Given there is this new rule, it should be easy enough for the government, travel companies and airlines to ask the right questions. It should be being flagged," he added.

"We've got to get the message out there that actually the expiry date on your passport is meaningless."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].