You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
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 The passport chappie asked me "do you have travel documents that are not out of date?"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to get a replacement passport before we can return to Spain because he said we won't get past French customs with an out of date passport.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.
Illegal immigrant.
You'll be first against the wall on Friday morning.
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.
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.
Coming over here using our Internet. ....
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. 😉
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.
heard all the excuses before, move along son, join the queue with all the other freeloaders 🙂
I've never seen inbound French give a monkeys.
This. Can't remember ever having my passport checked when entering France.
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.
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.
That's what my Grandad said too. To be fair, he was driving a Panzer up the Champs Elysees.
OP where are you staying?
Britain First would like a word with you...
perchypanther: That made me chuckle
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 🙂
"Sitting in my sons flat in Guildford"
He's already been breeding!! 😯
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....
Will it be easier to get home after Thursday?
Will it be easier to get home after Thursday?
Farage is already building a giant trebuchet on the cliffs just outside Folkestone.
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.
Or have I been listening to jambalaya too much....
😆 😆 😆
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. 🙂
You'll probably have to sit the new citizenship test to make sure you still fit in properly....
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....
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...
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?
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....
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
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 [i]and [/i]work cash-in-hand? Double whammy!
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
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.
[i]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 . . .[/i]
Too big or just not quite square enough?
[i]
Why the "or"? Can't you sign on and work cash-in-hand? Double whammy![/i]
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
my face filled up too much of the picture.
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.
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...
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.)
You are back to just buy a crate of this aren't you .. 😆
[img] 
[/img]
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!
😉
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)
PB - it' was in the late 20's when we left and 33 halfway up France. Too hot to be driving in a car with no A/C!
I remember a trip to Niagara Falls some time ago. We wanted to cross the river to Canada to go behind the falls and to say we had been there. We were allowed in and out on a 1 day visitors permit without any paper work or hassle. However, when the border officer stamped my passport she realised she hadn't changed the rubber date stamp from the previous day. Apparently this would have led to all sorts of issues when I tried to leave later that day! Cue all sorts of swearing, since she then had to stamp me back out of the country on the wrong day and back in again on the correct day. Lucky she noticed!
Forecast says rain at the end of next week, just in time for my 400mile trip down the length of cataluña. Plenty of time for it to change though.
You are back to just buy a crate of this aren't you .
No longer a problem (at least in Madrid), it's on sale in my local supermarket 🙂
I managed to get back into Blighty (in the early 90's admittedly) with a handwritten letter from "the rep" after I lost my passport in Austria somewhere whilst skiing. Shat myself all the way back only to be waived through without so much as a cursory glance at the folded, tattered, illiterate nonsense I was banking on to save me from a full body search. Course I got home, opened my case and there it was, right on top. Knob.
My mother made several trips on an expired passport and was completely aghast when border control requested up to date documents shortly after 9/11.
She had managed to drive from Germany to Charles de Gaul airport where they gave her short shrift and refused to let her fly. I think 'but I've been using it all year' was not really the reason they were looking for. She had to go to the embassy in Brussels whilst my dad caught the flight alone. I think he quite liked that moment.
Sat in hotel in Barcelona nervously checking passport dates 🙂
it' was in the late 20's when we left and 33 halfway up France.
So it's winter in France then? 33 hot? Jeez - some people don't know they're born....
Where are you zokes? The desert?
#cookin'
#straya
33 is a little low to be getting all hot and bothered about 😉 Nice riding temp though
10 year old kid at my wife's school managed to travel to Poland with his Mum using his Dad's passport.
Dad only found out 2 days later when he presented 'his' passport at checkin desk on Christmas Eve to go and join them. He spent the Christmas break on his own in the UK. They couriered the right passport for the kid over after Christmas so he could get home.
The Dad is 40 and has a beard in his passport photo.
[quote=Rockhopper ]One of guys discovered his passport had run out whilst he was on the coach on the way to the airport
An overnight coach trip?
I had a "visa" drawn in my passport, by DJ Erick Morillo
We were clubbing, and mullered (natch) and we'd had to take our passports as ID to get in. My wife "surprised" me by getting Erick (bless him) to draw a "visa" in permy marker, full page.
Been to many countries no dramas. When coming back into Oz once I got a snotty immigration officer who must have been having a bad day, got carted off for a stern chat with border control who advised me that no other country will let me in with a defaced passport. Then looked at the stamps from where I'd been (including in and out of Oz) giggled, and advised me to get it fixed.
My last trip to NZ, Oz passport control didn't record me leaving as something was going wong with the computers, NZ had to get permission from Canberra to get me back onto the plane to go home...
Then a long chat as to how I managed to get out of Oz on my return, helping much that my passport doesn't have visa attached to it. I now carry the printed version.
New passport arrived today. After 11 working days. Can't complain about that 🙂
I realised the day before my wedding I'd lost my passport. As I got married on a Monday, this meant I couldn't do anything about it until the day of my wedding.
End result? 4 hr turnaround for a new passport. 🙂