Passport Validity - 6 weeks left on passport

[SquirrelKate 36]

Hi

 

I'm a UK citizen, have a british passport and I need to fly to the UK next week (5th April). My passport runs out on the 14th of May 2012. Will this be OK or do I need to have 3 months "extra time" on my passport for entering the UK and then coming back to Germany? I'll be coming back to Germany on the 12th of April so I would still have 1 month left on my passport.

 

I searched on here and on the embassy website with no luck.

 

Thanks in advance :)

[Noel Furlong 3,306]

I believe that that is no problem. Watch out that you don't let it get too tight before you book your next flight though. My wife booked a trip over to Ireland a couple of years ago where her passport was scheduled to expire two days after the return flight to Germany. Murphy's law dictated that the airline had a strike on the weekend of the return flight and she ended up having to get an expensive emergency appointment on a Sunday at the German embassy in order to fly home three days later than planned. You'll be ok though.

[robinson100 12,526]

You have a valid passport, and the flight is not likely to be delayed that long!

When my Mother died, my MIL didn´t have a passport, as she had sent it in for renewal, and it was back in the town hall already - luckily, we live in a small town here,and they opened up the Gemeinde especially so that she could collect her passport on a Sunday - the stamp in it was queried at the airport, but she just claimed to have "friends in high places!"

Seriously though, get your passport renewed as soon as you get back, and then you won´t have to worry again for 10 years!

(a not-so-well-known-fact - you can get your passport renewed before it expires without losing any of it´s validity!)

[SquirrelKate 36]

Thanks so much! I was in a right tiz about it. I was going to renew it but this trip to the UK came sooner than expected.

 

Will be renewing as soon as I get back! :)

[YorkshireLad6 7,145]

Definitely no problem. I flew to UK on 23.12.11 and returned on 28.12.11 with a passport that expired on 02.01.12. No-one batted an eyelid, well apart from the frequently batted eyelid of comparing my current face to that on a photo taken 10 years ago). I sent it back for renewal on 03.01.12 and had it back 10 days later (but January is traditionally quiet at the passport office - the Consulate in fact recommended I wait until after Christmas when I inquired about validity). As Robinson100 suggests, you can (could have) renewed beforehand without losing any validity, but only up to 9 months before it expires.

[Tegelsee 75]

No problem at all, you can even enter the UK on an expired passport (if you're British). Bear in mind that it takes about 6 weeks to get your passport renewed. The news ones are brilliant by the way, very posh indeed :-)