0:00
So as if we haven't had enough of travel restrictions over the past two years, I am now hearing reports of huge delays coming out of the Passport Office in the UK for renewal of British Passports
0:14
So in this video we're going to look at the current waiting times for getting a renewal on your British passport
0:20
I'm also going to be talking to the UK Ambassador to Spain who I met earlier on this week
0:25
I'll also go through basically how you can check the validity of your UK passport and also your rights if you are denied boarding from a UK airport coming over to Spain with a perfectly valid passport
0:42
So how can you check the validity of your UK passport? Well, your passport needs to be under 10 years on the day of entry to Spain
0:52
In addition you also need to have three months left on your passport on the day
0:58
of your intended departure from Spain so make sure if you are running a little
1:03
bit close to the wire on your passport renewal that you can prove these dates with your return ticket back to the UK So if you are looking to renew your passport now you are looking at a 25 wait to get that
1:19
passport through at the very least. If it's a first-time passport and it's the first time
1:24
you've been abroad, you're going to be looking at a 40-day wait and the times are quite similar
1:28
as well for kids' passports too. Now, earlier on this week, I was out with the Mallorca Daily Bulletin
1:37
filming an interview with the UK ambassador to Spain who is visiting Mallorca
1:43
Now, at the end of that interview, I got a chance to ask him a question about what the UK government are doing
1:48
about the huge backlog of UK passport renewals. And this was his response
1:54
so to anybody listening to or reading this if you've got friends or family or people coming
2:03
out here the key thing is get them early to look at their passports check whether they have three
2:08
months of validity to them because a lot of people have just forgotten about this while they've been
2:12
because they haven been able to move around or so we seeing a lot of people finding out late in the day oh hang on and then having to get a passport renewed very quickly And of course because of the pandemic this is something that has been a backlog
2:26
and you're seeing almost three years of passport applications coming into one, which is putting a lot of pressure on the system
2:32
I know that the Passport Office is doing everything that it can, that the Home Office and Passport Office are doing everything they can
2:37
to try to get through this backlog and process things as quickly as possible. Well, we know some people have been affected because they haven't had the passports in the time they'd hoped
2:45
I say the best thing you can do to deal with that is to try and think as early as you possibly can
2:50
Even if you're just thinking about a holiday, check your passport, check its validity
2:54
You need at least three months. If you're not going to have that three months from the time you go on holiday
2:59
get that passport renewed and get the application in early. That's the best possible thing you can do to avoid having problems
3:03
and also with these problems my advice is not to book your holiday until you are in possession
3:12
of your renewed passport either because i cannot find an insurance company that will cover you
3:18
for a cancelled booking just simply because your renewed passport has not arrived back on time
3:24
so just bear that in mind So just like the travel restrictions that we had over the past a couple of years the airlines are struggling to keep up with the correct
3:36
information and we've also heard about reports of travelers coming out of the
3:40
UK with less than six months on their passports and being denied boarding and
3:46
if you have been wrongly denied boarding then you'll be entitled to a
3:50
compensation. So also in my article you will see links going through to the
3:55
EasyJet and Ryanair compensation forms so if you have been caught out in the
4:00
past few days make sure you head on over there and make sure you get a full
4:04
compensation. So I would love to hear if you have been waiting for your UK
4:11
passport renewal for an unreasonable period of time. Do let me know in
4:16
comments below this video don't forget to check out the article that I have
4:21
written all about this topic over on my website which is mallorcaunderthesun.com
4:26
and you will find all the official links to the websites that you need to get
4:31
your passports renewed, tracked and traced. Okay everyone thanks very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you on the next video. Goodbye for now
