The Passport Office has, until now, given Brits up to a nine month “bonus” on their passport if they renew it early, but this is set to change.
If there was nine months left on the old passport, this was added to the new one, or if there was three months left, this was added on.
For example, if your passport is due to expire on December 31 2019, you could have renewed it on March 31 2019 and it would be valid until December 31 2029 – with nine months added as incentive to renew early.
Money Saving Expert announced that many of its users have been left feeling “short-changed” after the changes were brought in this week, removing the incentive.
Founder Martin Lewis said on Radio 5 Live: “We got contacted by a number of our users saying they renewed their passports in the last couple of days, they had many months remaining, and those months were not added on their new passports.”
He continued: “To have done this without giving anyone any notice isn’t right and isn’t fair.
“It’s really not the way that governments should be operating on something as important as your passport. People are going to feel somewhat duped by this.”
Without the incentive there to review early, many Brits will now leave it until the last minute to renew their passports.
However this could cause problems with countries that require that visitors have between three and six months left on their passports before allowing them in.
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For example, Turkey and Dubai both ask for visitors to have six months left on their passports.
This could mean that unassuming holidaymakers turn up without enough time left on their passports to get into the country – and get turned away.
It also emerged yesterday that this could cause problems for Brits who want to visit the EU after Brexit.
Leaked documents reveal that if we leave the EU with No Deal, thousands of British holidaymakers could be kept away from the continent.
Officials are now planning to ramp up processing time at passport offices to cope with a possible rush from people anxious to ensure they can continue travelling to Europe.
Sun Online previously revealed that a six-year-old boy was left stranded in Belgium for two weeks after his passport was revoked – but he's now returned home to his mum.
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