I am trying to work out whether my wife's UK passport (expiry October)
will be OK for a holiday in France in August.
Several sites say that France require a passport with three months'
validity beyond the end of the stay.
BUT a note at
http://travel.excite.co.uk/travel/guides/europe/france/PassportVisaRequirements
says that passports are not required by "EU nationals holding a valid
national ID card. Note: EU nationals are only required to produce
evidence of their EU nationality and identity in order to be admitted to
any EU Member State."
Now, UK does not (yet) have ID cards. But if I rely on the second part
of the note, then a UK passport (even if it only has a few days to run)
would look to qualify as it does prove "evidence of their EU nationality".
So does that mean we'd be OK?
And how about our daughter (15), who is included on my wife's passport?
Can anyone point me toward comprehensive information - or a suggestion
of a contact in the French immigration service?
Once, one wouldn't think twice about when to renew a passport, but with
the monstrous passport fees now demanded it makes quite a difference: if
we wouldn't otherwise be going until next year, renewing my wife's
passport, and buying a new child passport for my daughter a year earlier
that necessary would cost us nearly GBP16.
John Geddes
England |