Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 57 total)
  • Found out at passport control late last night . . .
  • spekkie
    Free Member

    That my passport had expired!

    Visiting the UK for a few weeks to catch up with friends etc.

    Drove up from home in Spain to the tunnel. Arrived last night in Calais and at the “UK border” I handed over our passports. The passport chappie asked me “do you have travel documents that are not out of date?”

    He waved me through to the train and at the UK end there are no checks, so I’m in the UK now but I’m going to have to get a replacement passport before we can return to Spain because he said we won’t get past French customs with an out of date passport.

    I’ve always thought only idiots would turn up at an airport or other passport control without a passport. Now I am that idiot!

    Edit:

    Sorry, I should add that I have a UK passport, which expired whilst I was I. Spain.

    Should still be shot though, for being a muppet.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Illegal immigrant.
    You’ll be first against the wall on Friday morning.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    If you return to France before 10pm on Thursday you’ll probably be alright – I’ve never seen inbound French give a monkeys.

    From Friday morning on-wards it’s anybody’s guess.

    hebdencyclist
    Free Member

    It happens at that border all the time.

    Returning from a trip to France, my friend realised she’d brought her boyfriend’s passport by mistake. The guy in the booth in Calais waved us through anyway.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Coming over here using our Internet. ….

    gastromonkey
    Free Member

    Congratulations! You got in before they close the gates. You clearly have no intention to work and I bet you’ve already got a free house, been to a free dentist and have been signed up for all the benefits going. 😉

    spekkie
    Free Member

    After a 750 mile drive from Spain, in searing heat I might add, I couldn’t believe my own carelessness. I knew the expiry was coming up, I think I just forgot that it is June already.

    M6TTF
    Free Member

    heard all the excuses before, move along son, join the queue with all the other freeloaders 🙂

    legend
    Free Member

    I’ve never seen inbound French give a monkeys.

    This. Can’t remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Can’t remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.

    That’s what my Grandad said too.

    To be fair, he was running up the beach in 1944.

    hebdencyclist
    Free Member

    Can’t remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.

    That’s what my Grandad said too.

    To be fair, he was running up the beach in 1944. [/quote]

    That’s what my Grandad said too. To be fair, he was driving a Panzer up the Champs Elysees.

    gonzy
    Free Member

    OP where are you staying?
    Britain First would like a word with you…

    GSI-MAN
    Free Member

    perchypanther: That made me chuckle

    spekkie
    Free Member

    Sitting in my sons flat in Guildford, eating his biscuits and drinking his tea whilst surfing on his internet.

    Can’t decide whether to sign-on for the two weeks we’re here or work cash-in-hand for someone? Maybe I’ll just sit at home and watch daytime tv 🙂

    clodhopper
    Free Member

    “Sitting in my sons flat in Guildford”

    He’s already been breeding!! 😯

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Can’t decide whether to sign-on for the two weeks we’re here or work cash-in-hand for someone? Maybe I’ll just sit at home and watch daytime tv

    Amateur! Surely you should have contracted full blown Cat Aids and demanding the NHS treat you FREE OF CHARGE as well as giving birth to SIXTEEN children, all paid for by HARD WORKING tax payers?

    And then collect £80k a week in benefits and a 18 bedroom manor house all paid for my the council?

    Or have I been listening to jambalaya too much….

    benp1
    Full Member

    Will it be easier to get home after Thursday?

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Will it be easier to get home after Thursday?

    Farage is already building a giant trebuchet on the cliffs just outside Folkestone.

    Marge
    Free Member

    you may well be checked on the way out in 2 ways (based on my expat experiences)

    Eurotunnel enforces advanced passenger information (API) and this controls your passport details

    Also, the French control are checking passports now. Maybe not 100% but far more than they used to.

    gonzy
    Free Member

    Or have I been listening to jambalaya too much….

    😆 😆 😆

    welshfarmer
    Full Member

    You’ll wish you had done it (renewed the passport) back in Spain. I had to do mine when I lived in Germany. Sent off docs to British Consulate on a Monday, new passport returned direct to me by the end of the week. You are now faced with the fun of spending a day of your life queuing at a UK passport office which will be 50 miles away from anywhere you actually want to be. 🙂

    footflaps
    Full Member

    You’ll probably have to sit the new citizenship test to make sure you still fit in properly….

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    My work had an xmas do in Paris one year. One of guys discovered his passport had run out whilst he was on the coach on the way to the airport so he changed the date with a pen.
    He got caught….

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    Drove up from home in Spain to the tunnel. Arrived last night in Calais and at the “UK border” I handed over our passports. The passport chappie asked me “do you have travel documents that are not out of date?”

    As we’re (currently) in the EU could you use your driving licence?

    What we really need is an ID card…

    spekkie
    Free Member

    ID card sounds good – surprised no ones thought about that before. . . . .

    Meanwhile, I’m now watching movies I downloaded from the net on a laptop plugged into the tv. I don’t need a tv license to do that, right?

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Meanwhile, I’m now watching movies I downloaded from the net on a laptop plugged into the tv. I don’t need a tv license to do that, right?

    As long as it’s good old British Pron and none of this foreign muck….

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    Chapeau to Bordor Control for having the sense to let you through. A visit to Trafalgar Square perhaps 😉

    You only need a tv licence to watch live tv (in fact if your friend ls have a licence you can watch legally there and imo zero chance having an issue anyway). You can even watch iplayer catchup legally without anlicence. You might want to download the app and stock up on programs. You can download here then watch abroad

    mogrim
    Full Member

    Can’t decide whether to sign-on for the two weeks we’re here or work cash-in-hand for someone?

    Why the “or”? Can’t you sign on and work cash-in-hand? Double whammy!

    rocketman
    Free Member

    I went away a few weeks ago and the check in agent said I might not be able to get back because my passport was ‘expiring soon’

    Coming back the digital check failed even though it had worked loads of times in the past. Got directed over to Desk 12 the bloke just gave me the 50 yd stare and waved me through

    They know who they’re looking for. Always a tense moment though

    alpin
    Free Member

    i drove up from the very south of Germany and stopped off for one night n Brussels. when checking into the hotel i realised i had forgotten my passport.

    had to phone my housemate who had to break into the locked sideboard and post my passport to the British Embassy in Brussels.

    ended up being quite an expensive stop over.

    also had to renew my passport whilst resident in Germany. sent off my photos and they sent them back sayng my head was too big…. turns out the German biometric parameters are different to those required by the UK. that was a pain in the arse.

    spekkie
    Free Member

    also had to renew my passport whilst resident in Germany. sent off my photos and they sent them back sayng my head was too big…. turns out the German biometric parameters are different to those required by the UK. that was a pain in the . . .

    Too big or just not quite square enough?

    spekkie
    Free Member


    Why the “or”? Can’t you sign on and work cash-in-hand? Double whammy!

    Jeez – I really am an amateur!

    When I go to Sainsburys later I’ll try to redeem myself by saying I “don’t need any bags” at the self service till and then taking some anyway!

    Bwahahahah

    alpin
    Free Member

    my face filled up too much of the picture.

    ScottChegg
    Free Member

    Can’t remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.

    Monday this week there were 5 hour delays for the Tunnel due to ‘extra checks’ with the French Customs officers.

    Probably caused by travellers with out of date passports.

    ji
    Free Member

    Anyone old enough to remember the cardboard 1 year passports that you could get issued direct from the post office for trips to Europe? I managed to travel from here to France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium on one, and it was only back at Dover that the guy pointed out it had the expiry date as the saem date it was issued, and so had been out of date the whole time!

    (Some time ago, so don’t rely on this OP)*

    * OK so actually a long time ago…

    munrobiker
    Free Member

    You see if we did the decent thing and went all in with the EU you’d just need a driver’s license. But because we are a backwards right wing outpost you can’t.

    Should’ve stayed in Spain.

    (I realised the night before a university field trip to Spain I didn’t have my passport. My mum had just been given notice of redundancy from her job so sacked off the day’s work and came up in her company car on their fuel. So everyone was happy.)

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    You are back to just buy a crate of this aren’t you .. 😆

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    Too big or just not quite square enough?

    🙂

    @alpin surely you know now “alles ist verboten”

    CountZero
    Full Member

    I’ve never seen inbound French give a monkeys.
    This. Can’t remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.

    They’ll probably just wave you through just so you’ll be someone else’s problem!
    😉

    pistonbroke
    Free Member

    If they don’t let you back in can I have your house in Guaso? It’s been pretty hot here c:30 degrees for the last 2 weeks, could do with a bolt hole in the hills to cool down a bit. 8)

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 57 total)

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