told my mate the same thing!

struggling with this government number they have give out to contact them to book an appointment

just rings and diverts to answer machine!!!! all day long, no return call when leaving details...

how can we book an appointment when no one gets in touch

hopefully there is another way to book one...online or email maybe

The problem isn't helped by travel companies giving out false information about what a valid passport actually is.

Jet2 were insistent that I needed 6 months left on my passport from the date I was due to return from Tenerife, which is nonsense. I can remain in Tenerife until the day my passport expires if I so wish.

It wouldn't surprise me if a massive number of passports in this backlog are renewals that would be perfectly valid for whatever trip they are being used for.

It's not entirely nonsense, as some countries require UK passport holders to have six months of validity left on their passport from the date of entry into the country. Brazil being one such, as many have found to their cost. I'd agree that you can travel within the EU even if your passport expires tomorrow and those from say Germany who have National ID cards could travel back home using their ID card even if their passport ran out.

But basically this is incompetence and lack of proper training of airline staff responsible. We often fly with Jet2 but their website says:

This is really vague. But it doesn't mean "Jet2 definitely requires" as if it did, they would say. It must be referring to the general minimum requirement it thinks applies across all the countries they fly to. It is a bit silly of them not to actually specify the actual position for people travelling to EU destinations, which must be the majority of their passengers.

Anyway, I don't think Jet2 staff check passport expiry dates or don't seem to do more than glance at your photo as you pass through, so as long as Passport control let you out which obviously they will, it's fine. We often go to Spain and I can't ever remember anybody even being in the arrival passport check booth, in some decades.

My brother

20 years ago we went for a cycling holiday to France - at that point our kid was a world traveller, he had literally hiked around the world twice over the previous five years and had just come back from living in Australia for twelve months - as we got the bikes off the car in Portsmouth he checked his passport, showing off all of his fancy visas and entry/exit stamps against mine which had only seen Spain at that time, then he noticed that his passport had expired three months earlier.

This was in 1993 and perhaps they weren't as vigilant, but we continued on our journey to France and he went through four passport checks without anyone noticing

Anyway, mine expires in September and I'm not renewing it, not for £80 I'm not, I don't need a passport to identify myself, I know who I am, its them who have the problem and if they want me to carry a document to prove what I already know then they can pay for the f**kin thing themselves.

then you wont be travelling soon mate!

and if you think £80 is expensive, try getting travel to Russia!

(although I do agree, these people are meant to be CIVIL SERVANTS, and they are neither civil nor serve anyone except themselves!

To be honest that really doesn't bother me anymore, there are lots of places in the UK that I haven't seen properly yet including any part of Scotland thats north of Stirling, disgraceful I know.

As for the usual "Ah but we don't get the weather..." well we do, the weather is what makes this country so fascinating and if anyone is scared of a bit of rain spoiling their holiday then I can introduce them to Go Outdoors and some fabulous new equipment called "waterproofs" - I burn to death in hot weather and hate beach holidays so going abroad isn't quite the attraction to me as it is to your average punter in an airport queue (don't get me started on airports either).

The only slight snag will be when my company send me to a job on a nuclear power station again as you need a passport as proof of ID and they have to pre-book you using your passport number, in fact I'm looking forward to seeing if the combination of private security and British armed police can spot that my passports expired

still no joy getting through to the liverpool passport office to make an appointment... 10 days to go!

might just tell him to turn up in liverpool at the office

This is up there with some of the best things I've read on RLFans. Top stuff.

I remember the one year passports you got at the post office the lads used to get them before we hit Spain 8.50 I think they were