Next month, Britons entering and leaving the EU Schengen area will be confronted with a new biometric EES system and ahead of the October launch, the HM Passport Office has issued a crucial reminder to all UK passport holders: check the validity of your passport before leaving the country. Starting in late 2025, travellers from the UK heading to destinations like Spain, France, and Canada need to ensure their passports meet entry requirements specific to each country.
This advice follows a recent wave of concerns regarding passport expiration dates and their impact on international travel. In an urgent text message sent by HM Passport Office, UK travellers were reminded to ensure their passport is valid for the country they are traveling to. The message included a link to the Foreign Travel Advice page, where detailed entry requirements for various destinations are provided. The UK government’s goal is to prevent unnecessary disruptions to travellers and avoid issues at the border.
The link takes receivers of the message to the Foreign travel advice page. It lists a series of destinations to help people get “advice and warnings about travel abroad, including entry requirements, safety and security, health risks and legal differences.” Two popular destinations are Spain and France. In their travel advice, they note that both popular countries follows Schengen area rules. This means that your passport must:
Have a date of issue less than 10 years before the date you arrive – if you renewed your passport before 1 October 2018, it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago
Have an expiry date at least 3 months after the date you plan to leave the Schengen area (the expiry date does not need to be within 10 years of the date of issue)
The EES will be an automated IT system for registering travellers from third-countries, both short-stay visa holders and visa exempt travellers, each time they cross an EU external border. The system will register the person’s name, type of the travel document, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit, in full respect of fundamental rights and data protection.
It will also record refusals of entry. EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of over-stayers (travellers who have exceeded the maximum duration of their authorised stay).
EES will contribute to prevent irregular migration and help protect the security of European citizens. The new system will also help bona fide third-country nationals to travel more easily while also identifying more efficiently over-stayers as well as cases of document and identity fraud. In addition to this, the system will allow a wider use of automated border control checks and self-service systems, which are quicker and more comfortable for the traveller.