Passport requirements

6 months. Better get a new one, quick

This is off U.K. Government website https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements

Check your passport and travel documents before you travelPassport validity

If you are planning to travel to an EU country (except Ireland), or Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino or Vatican City, you must meet the Schengen area rules.

Your passport must meet 2 requirements. It must be:

• less than 10 years old on the day you enter (check the ‘date of issue’)
• valid for at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave (check the ‘expiry date’)

We are asking the European Commission to clarify the 10-year rule. Their guidance for Schengen border guards may not be updated until the spring of 2022. Until then, for some Schengen countries your passport may need to be less than 10 years old during your whole visit, and the 3 months at the end of your visit may need to be within 10 years of your passport’s issue date.

Check both the issue date and the expiry date in your passport. If you renewed your passport early, extra months may have been added to its expiry date. This could affect the requirement for your passport to be less than 10 years old.

Contact your travel provider or embassy of the country you are visiting if you think that your passport does not meet both these requirements. Renew your passport if you need to.

This is off the Europa.eu website https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-nationals/index_en.htm

Travel documents for non-EU nationals

Passport and visa requirements

If you are a non-EU national wishing to visit or travel within the EU, you will need a passport:

• valid for at least 3 months after the date you intend to leave the EU country you are visiting,
• which was issued within the previous 10 years,

and possibly a visa. You should apply for a visa from the consulate or embassy of the country you are visiting. If your visa is from a Schengen area country, it automatically allows you to travel to the other Schengen countries as well. If you have a valid residence permit from one of those Schengen countries, it is equivalent to a visa. You may need a national visa to visit non-Schengen countries.

Border officials in EU countries may ask for other supporting documents such as an invitation letter, proof of lodging, return or round-trip ticket. For the precise requirements contact the local consular services of the EU country in question.

There are a number of countries whose nationals do not need a visa to visit the EU for three months or less. The list of countries whose nationals require visas to travel to Ireland differs slightly from other EU countries.

The British Embassy output is typically confusing.

"Your passport must meet 2 requirements. It must be:

• less than 10 years old on the day you enter (check the ‘date of issue’)
• valid for at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave (check the ‘expiry date’)"

If you were to arrive in Spain on the 10th anniversary of your passports issue (assuming you even got on a plane in the first place) then you would find yourself retuning to UK on the next available flight.In short your passport should be no older than 9 years and 6 months from its date of issue.

Hi Jab1967,

Given your dates of travel, your current passport complies with the second of the two requirements, i.e. it will have more than 3 months' validity from 1st April, the date you leave Spain.

However, you must check the issue date, rather than the expiry date because, prior to Brexit, some people had acquired additional months over the standard 10 years' validity.  The only way you can be sure of complying with the first of the two requirements is by checking the issue date, as there may be more than 10 years between that and the expiry date.

Kind regards, 

Kim