Brits could miss holidays due to expired passport

Friday, June 12, 2020

The people of Britain are preparing for “new normal” holidays. But now, millions of Brits can miss their holidays due to expired passport. As the Foreign Office prepares to lift its blanket warning against international travel, Brit holidaymakers could find themselves grounded because their passports have run out.

Since 17 March, the government of United Kingdom has advised against non-essential travel anywhere abroad. It is widely expected that the Foreign Office will shortly ease its advice for key destinations, including France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. But one week after the no-go warning was issued, normal passport operations ended as part of the coronavirus lockdown measures brought in at the early stages of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

It is according to the passport office, do not apply unless it is needed a passport urgently for compassionate reasons, for example, if a family member has died, or for government business.

But more than one million passports have expired since lockdown began. The UK Passport Office policy on renewals and new travel documents has not changed, and there is no clarity about how long it will take to clear the growing backlog.

The families with newborn babies, or who are applying for passports for the first time, are facing even deeper problems because obtaining new travel documents takes much longer than the usual three weeks.

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