Turkey holiday warning as strict new passport rules in place for Brits

BRITS heading to Turkey are being warned to check their passports due to new rules in place.

Previously, UK holidaymakers needed to have at least six months on their passport to visit Turkey.

This has since been changed to 150 days, or five months.

The UK Foreign Office currently states: “If you are visiting Turkey, your passport should be valid for at least 150 days from the date you arrive and there should be a full blank page for the entry and exit stamps.”

If your passport does not have a full blank page, you will need to buy a new one.

If you are someone who travels a lot then you can buy a larger passport, which has 50 pages instead of 34 pages, costing £10 extra.

There are some other new rules in place for Brits regarding passport validity.

For most European countries, passports must have at least three months left on them, with the new rule in place since the UK left the EU.

However, another new rule no longer allows passports to be more than 10 years old.

Previously, UK passport holders could roll over up to nine months from their previous documents – these are no longer valid, meaning the expiry date may not be the real expiry date.

Instead, you should make sure the start date is 10 years or less when you are travelling.

Lots of Brits have been having problems with their passports, leaving many thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Mum Shirelle Quinn was banned from her flight to Alicante with her son Freddy because her passport was found to be out of date, as it was issued in August 2012.

A four-year-old boy was turned away from his flight to a similar problem with his passport expiry.

And a woman’s £2,000 holiday was ruined for the same reason.

If you need to renew your passport, it can be done online, costing £75.50, or via a paper application form available at the Post Office for £85.