Martin Lewis is urging Brits travelling abroad this summer to make two crucial checks before flying abroad. The MoneySavingExpert.com founder warns that travellers risk being turned away at the airport if they fail to verify both their passport's expiry date and its issue date.
Check Your Passport Expiry Date
In a clip from ITV's This Morning shared on TikTok, Lewis said: "Do you have six months left on your passport, or three months if you're going to the European Union?" He emphasised that the mistake many people make is assuming there is one rule that applies everywhere. If you are cutting it close, you need to check the individual country's requirements rather than relying on a general rule of thumb.
The 10-Year Rule That Catches People Out
But it is the second check that Lewis says "catches people out" the most. "It's the one I get the most emails about — people being turned back from the plane or turned back when they arrive at border control," he says. And it has nothing to do with your expiry date. It is about how old your passport is.
"You could have more than six months left, but your passport could be 10 years old and you can get turned back," Lewis warns. The reason for this trips people up. Until 2018, if you renewed your passport early and still had time remaining on the old one, those extra months could be added onto the new passport. That means some travellers have a passport with months left until expiry but one that is already over 10 years old by its issue date.
"People check, oh, I've got six months left. They don't check how old their passport is," Lewis says. Working it out is simple: both dates are printed on your passport, and Lewis advises checking both before you travel.
Rules Vary by Destination
What makes this more complicated is that the rules are not the same everywhere. Some countries apply a strict six-month validity rule, others require three months, and some have requirements that sit outside both. The 10-year issue date rule also varies by destination. What matters is whether you meet the entry requirements of the country you are arriving in on the day you land, not a general guideline and not what worked last time you travelled.
Expert Advice
A spokesperson for travel experts Ski Vertigo said: "Passport rules vary for every destination and what worked on your last trip may not apply on your next one. We recommend checking the specific entry requirements for wherever you are travelling well before you fly, and if either date on your passport is getting close to the limit, renew sooner rather than later. Passport renewals take time, and being turned away at the airport at the last minute can mean your entire trip is cancelled — which is an expensive and easily avoided mistake."
