Passport Office staff have announced that they will walk out on strike for five weeks from the beginning of April. The decision is a “significant escalation” of a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions, their union said.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union says that the walkout, which will affect more than 1,000 members of staff in seven offices, including Durham, will have a “significant impact” on the delivery of passports. With the Easter holidays just around the corner and the summer holidays fast approaching, it will mean that more than a million applications could get stuck in the system.
So what does that mean for your holiday plans? Will the strike have any effect on your Easter or Summer holidays?
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Will the strike affect my holiday?
The Passport Office insists that travellers allow 10 weeks for passport applications to be completed and sent out to them. On paper, that means if you applied for a passport today, it was on time and there were no delays or interferences, you could expect it to arrive on May 30th at the latest.
If you applied today and included a five-week gap for the strike, you’d expect your passport to arrive by June 27th. So it would not be impossible to get your passport with enough time for the Summer holidays in July and August, but with demand increasing, it would be cutting it fine.
The best advice is to renew your passport as soon as possible whether you have holidays booked or not, that way there is no disappointment if things don't work out. Travel insurance is unlikely to cover you if you must cancel or rebook your holiday because of passport or visa issues as the majority require you to have the correct documents upon taking out the policy.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with the union’s decision to strike. We are working to manage the impact of strike action, whilst ensuring we can continue to deliver vital services to the public, with comprehensive contingency plans in place. There are currently no plans to change our guidance which states that it takes up to ten weeks to get a passport.”
What are passport expiry date recommendations?
If you’re unsure whether you need to renew your passport, check the requirements for your chosen destination. While many travel operators insist that passports must be valid for at least six months after your intended date of departure, in some countries, such as the EU and Schengen area, this is just three.
For those countries, passports must be:
Issued less than 10 years before the day of arrival in the EU
Expiry date at least three months from the intended date of departure from the EU
For example, if you’re heading to Tenerife for a family break in August and your passport was issued on 1 July 2013, that is less than 10 years. If it expires on 1 March 2024, that’s more than three months after leaving, so you’ll be fine.
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