Travellers who renew their passports are getting up to nine months’ less validity after an ‘under-the-radar change’ to Passport Office rules.
The disclosure was made by MoneySavingExpert after multiple users reported they had been “short-changed” when renewing their passports.
A traveller whose passport is due to expire on June 1, 2019 could renew on September 1, 2018 and get a new document valid until June 1, 2029.
But a long-established practice of crediting a new passport with unexpired time from the old passport has been dropped from this week.
MoneySavingExpert said: “Until a few days ago, when you renewed your passport, any time left on your existing document would be added to your new one, up to a maximum of nine months.
“But those who have renewed their passports in the past week have been shocked to find this is no longer the case – even though the government hasn’t announced any change and refused to officially confirm today that it had actually happened.
“UK passports are usually valid for ten years, but if you’re travelling to a country which requires you to enter with validity remaining on your passport, you may have no choice but to renew early.”
Founder Martin Lewis said: “The biggest problem with this is many countries do not let you in if you’ve less than six months on your passport. In fact, we’ve heard some stories of people being sent home because a child’s passport is too close to expiry.
“This change of policy will lead many people to renew later so they can scrape out every last month of their passport. But of course that runs the risk of many more people being sent back home.
“And the fact it looks like the government has chosen to do this without notifying people and put such a big change in place hoping to sneak it under the radar is plain wrong. They’ve failed to sneak it under the radar – so they’ll probably have to announce it officially now.”