Irish passport holders planning on heading away this summer should be warned of the lesser-known passport rules that could see you turned away at the departure gate.
The summer season is fast approaching and many families will be thinking of their long-awaited return to the sun after years hampered by Covid restrictions.
The passport office has warned of a huge influx of people applying for their new and renewed documents with wait times as follows:
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- Simple online renewals - 10 working days
- Complex online renewals - 15 working days
- First time online applicants - 30 working days
- For those applying by post, the wait time is currently around eight weeks.
Simple adult and child renewals have the quickest turnaround and despite the high volume of applications, there have been no major delays.
However, passengers are warned that if you haven’t travelled in a long time - and therefore have not looked at or used your passport - you need to check how long ago it expired.
You can renew online from anywhere in the world, as long as your previous Irish passport is no more than five years out of date.
If it expired longer than five years ago, you will be treated as a first-time applicant and will see your wait time jump from 10 to 35 working days.
As well as this, if you reside in Ireland but hold an international passport, in order to travel into a Schengen member country you must ensure that your passport is valid for at least 3 months.
This must be calculated from the date of departure from the Schengen member country.
You should also check the condition of your official travel document before heading to the airport.
According to citizens’ information, if your passport is in any way damaged, you can be turned away at the airport - this includes water damage, severe scratching on the identity card page, faded pages, loose binding, tearing on the cover, and so on.
Anything that can hinder identifying the passport as legitimate and belonging to the holder is considered enough damage to be turned away by airport staff.
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