A Hertfordshire mother said she was forced to leave her eldest son at home after discovering his passport had expired just days before a planned trip to Croatia to attend a friend's wedding.
Penny Moyses, 37, flew to the destination with her younger child while her husband, James, and their five-year-old son stayed behind to try to obtain an emergency passport. Moyses said the delay cost the family hundreds of pounds and left her feeling "sick to my stomach" when she realised the document had expired.
Moyses told reporters she had checked the family's passports at home and only then noticed her eldest son's passport had expired the previous October. She said she initially hoped to secure an emergency passport in a day but learned that children's passport applications are subject to stricter safeguarding checks and generally require at least a week to process.
The family missed the first two days of their trip but managed to intercept the renewed passport at their local sorting office, Moyses said. The father and son reached the wedding in time; the pair changed into their suits on a boat transfer and attended the ceremony.
The episode follows other travel disruptions attributed to passport rules introduced after the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. British passports issued before 2018 can appear to be valid for more than 10 years because remaining validity from a previous passport was sometimes carried over to a renewed document. However, EU and Schengen rules require that a passport must have been issued less than 10 years before travel and be valid for at least three months beyond the planned date of return to the UK.
A separate case cited by travel commentators involved grandparents denied boarding for a cruise to New York because one traveler's passport, issued in 2015 and expiring in September, exceeded the 10-year issuing limit when EU waters were to be entered. Staff told the couple the extra months on the passport did not count for travel that involved docking in EU ports, preventing them from joining the cruise.
Travel advisers and public guidance have repeatedly warned that simple administrative oversights — expired passports, misunderstandings about passport age rules, and insufficient remaining validity — can prevent travel and result in additional costs and disrupted plans. In Moyses's case, the family's last-minute split ended with the children reuniting with their parents at the wedding, but the incident highlighted the potential consequences of not checking travel documents well in advance.