New European rules apply from 1 January 2021. Make sure your passport is fit for purpose.
Under current immigration rules British passport holders can still enjoy visa free access to European countries until 31st December 2020. On the 1st of January 2021 these rules will change. From next year you must obtain an electronic visa for non visit entry and have at least 6 months left in your passport before expiry to travel to most European countries (excluding Ireland). An important note on this and one that will catch people out is that previously HMPO would add up to 9 months unused time into your passport for time left when renewing your passport and the new European 6 months rule does not include this extra time and only applies to the first 10 years of validity of your passport.
Example:
Passport issued 01/06/2011 due to expire 01/12/2021. This passport validity is 10 years and 5 months. European rules will only take into account the standard 10 years issues and no time extra so this passport will be valid to enter the European countries up until 31st December 2020, even though the passport does not expire until December 2021. A simpler calculation can be made by saying once your passport reaches 9 year 6 months from issue then you will not be able to use it to enter the Europe
The new rules will apply for travel to and between most countries in Europe. These are:
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City
The new rules will not apply when travelling to Ireland.
If you want to check or renew your passport now, please call us and we can help.
Source: HMPO
