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Query re UK passport vaidity dates for French residents


Daft Doctor
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Hi, I'm just a little confused and wondered if anyone can supply the answer that I can't seem to find elsewhere online?

My UK passport expires on Sept 1st 2021 and I hold a carte de sejour permanent as a French resident (exchange for post-Brexit version applied for). I have a trip to the UK planned for late March, and so my planned return to the EU after the trip would be less than 6 months before the expiry date on my passport. I know that post Jan 1st 2021 a minimum of 6 months should be on a UK passport to enter the Schengen area, but does this rule apply to a permanent EU resident such as myself? If so, I will need to renew my UK passport sooner rather than later, but if not I won't bother until it actually comes up to expiry. Thanks for any advice, reference links, etc.....
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from https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/brexit-questions-will-my-passport-be-valid-after-brexit/

A British passport will be valid to travel to the EU with it, only if it meets all of the criteria listed below:

Is valid for at least another six months on the day its holder travels to EU Is no older than 10 years on the day its holder travels to EU

Similar advice at https://www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport/renew

So it does seem you will need to renew it.

The carte de sejour will mean your passport will not be stamped as you can stay permanently. It is not a replacement for a passport (EU ID cards will no longer be valid for entry into the UK).
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  • 3 weeks later...
My understanding is different - that if you are a French resident then there is no minimum period required - just that it’s in date. I’m resident in France and came back from the UK on December 27th with only 51 days still to run on my British passport. The border control pointed this out but I had checked this before we left.

Since then I have applied online for a new passport which is now winging its way to me. I think I found the info on a French government website or via the British Embassy in Paris website.
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I think that since we did finally leave the EU (sob, sob) on 31/12/2020, Manon's experience relates to the previous EU law which we were still operating under till then. For myself, I'd change it, loosing 6 months of a passport validity is better than being turned back, or not allowed to travel at all (that is whenever we might be able to do so again safely!).

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It is already mid Jan and I have no idea if DD would get it back in

time. Lots of things are taking an age at the moment because of covid.

He might, but then  would be snookered if it wasn't back.

And I would say to have those six months left on a passport, because french officials, can be very officious, unfortunately.

[Www]In fact I have no idea if anyone will be travelling then anyway....... I suppose no one does.

Curfew now at 18h in France isn't it?

And we then have another problem don't we, because the UK will issue a passport 6 months in advance. Not talking about DD 's case, but take me for an example, my passport is due for renewal on the 30 April next year, and I can ask for a new one in October this year. The new passport will be dated until 30 April 2022, and that will mean that it is over ten years.

OR isn't that what that 10 year rule means? I have no idea to be honest.

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The six month validity rule does not apply to UK residents in France who are resident under the WA, see HERE

Check "Passports and travel"

"You must have at least 6 months left on an adult or child passport to

travel to most countries in Europe (not including Ireland). This

requirement does not apply if you are entering or transiting to France,

and you are in scope of the Withdrawal Agreement
.
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I realise that many posters will have CDS's etc and been long term residents but not all and this would seem to apply. I was wondering if those who say moved last year, had been required to prove income and health care

The WA states that.

  • are a worker or self-employed person in the country where you’re living
  • are a student and can show you have enough money to live on and have comprehensive sickness insurance
  • are a self-sufficient person and can show you have enough money to live on, and have comprehensive sickness insurance, or
  • already have the right of permanent residence

If you are covered, your family members living with you in an EU country by 31 December 2020 are also covered.

And I know that the french state also says that they use the RSA as a base, BUT they also say that those moving or having moved to France less than five years ago, have not got to be a burden to the french state, I am simply wondering how on earth someone on such minimum income could afford comprehensive health insurance and actually 'live' and not be a burden.

Also, on that passport bit, it does not say that IF one has a CDS etc that a passport can be less than 6 months old. AT least I have not read it like that, that the CDS overrides this requirement.

My son still lives in France, so this is also important for him to know.

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Just to clarify matters, I have been resident in France for over 10 years now. Also, last year the passport office was inundated with online and postal applications and there was no guarantee when you would get your new passport. This has now changed for the better and I understand that renewals online ( incredibly simple to do ) are now taking 2-3 weeks, and that is my experience. Fill in the online form, get your reference number and then send off your old passport - I sent it requiring a signature and it cost me about 8 euros. I got an acknowledgement a couple of days later, and then updates every few days which amazed me. I filled in the form towards the end of December, sent off my passport a week later and my new one is apparently on its way to me already.

Why not just email the British Embassy in Paris and ask them to confirm the passport validity requirements ?
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I am curious as to why the British Embassy would/should help.

My thinking is that it is surely the french embassy in London would the be ones to contact, as it would be the french who would refuse entry to someone returning to their french home??

What would others posters do?

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I'd probably not bother contacting embassies or consulates on the basis they are unlikely to fine-tune published advice according to my exact circumstances. But particularly I wouldn't bother because at the point of travel, it's airline staff and ferry companies that ultimately decide who to allow on board and their interpretation of the rules may not - as some travellers have experienced - be accurate.

I'd accept that at this time - pandemic, Covid tests, Brexit + rapid amendments to rules - I'd prefer to control the things I can control and I'd apply for a new passport now regardless of any loss of months of validity.

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The British Embassy helps holders of British passports and as it’s only an email what’s to lose ?

Yes it, is the people on the ground who have the ultimate say. English friends who are French residents came back from the U.K. via Eurotunnel two days ago with their attestations and their negative Covid test certificates and nobody, on either side, asked to see their documents !!!! They were asked if they had their travel papers but that was all.
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So, aside from any issues of residency, when I looked at the regulations in more detail about entering Schengen from the UK post-Brexit, I realised that because my passport issued on 1st July 2011, then although the expiry date wasn't until 1st Sept 2021, as of 1st January 2021 it was invalid for re-entry to Schengen, as the passport must be no more than 9 and a half years old on the date of travel (N.B. the Gov.uk website says 10 years old at travel, but from many other sources I've read, I believe that this is inaccurate) .

Anyway, I decided just to renew, and it was extremely rapid. The biggest delay was getting my old passport back to the passport office, which took a week from France, no doubt longer than usual because of the New Year weekend, Brexit delays, etc. Nonetheless, within 2 weeks of doing my application online (including a photo just taken against a light wall in the house), I had my new passport.

It isn't a criticism, but with everything being digital these days, I can't understand why the passport office needs to physically receive your old passport before it can do anything. The details of the old passport, including photo, etc, will be in their database, so they could easily crosscheck with the new application, and cancel the old one when they issue the new. At the end of it, they send the old one back (via expensive courier), minus one corner, and again, unless you actually want to keep these old passports for posterity, why bother?
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By law nobody is permitted to hold more than one UK passport at a time.

Prior to 1993 the passport was a much bulkier affair (6" x 4") and more like a book with hard front and back covers, there was also a choice of how many pages you had, 34 or 50.

Visas were still common so on renewal if the old passport contained active visas they joined the old and new together.

If you'd chosen the 50 pager by the time you had two joined together it became a very unwieldy document, in some instances where owners had long term or indefinite visas some had three joined together!
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But you can hold a second passport, frequent business travellers do, and those who are say visiting Israel and other countries they may be visiting do not recognise Israel etc can get a second one issued.

Sorry about that, I remember a world long ago when such creatures existed like 'frequent business travellers'.[blink]

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AnOther wrote the following post at 22/01/2021 4:22:

By law nobody is permitted to hold more than one UK passport at a time.

Sorry no cigar AnO, my son who works in the music industry has two UK passports as when he applies for a work visa in America it takes several weeks and they keep your passport while processing the visa. He is allowed another passport as he mainly works in Europe so while waiting for the American Visa he can still work. Also, myself and my former work colleagues had to have two passports, as after working in Israel and having an Israeli stamp we couldn't work in many Arab countries. Nothing wrong with your memory Idun. ?
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AnOther wrote the following post at 22/01/2021 19:17:

Alright so plain vanilla plebs (99% of the population) cannot hold two passports at the same time, how's that?

Haha haha haha LOL, come on mate you were wrong, now you've made it worse you silly old silly.

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