Do we have an EU passport problem?

Have a question? Ask our expert Simon Calder

The Italian tricolore: after Brexit British travellers will be ‘third country nationals’ (AP)

Q I have booked flights to Italy in the May half term. My son’s passport expires on 18 July 2019. With us leaving the EU, will I need to renew his passport?

Name withheld

A Assuming the UK leaves the European Union as expected on at 11pm on 29 March 2019, yes.

At present you can travel on an EU passport, as British travel documents are until Brexit, anywhere in the European Union up to and including the date of expiry.

Whether or not a deal is concluded between the UK and the EU, after Brexit British travellers will be “third country nationals” and subject to the standard rules of admission for citizens of nations such as the US, Japan and Australia. That means there must be at least 90 days (for safety, allow three months and one day) beyond your intended date of departure.

The UK government says: “Because third country nationals can remain in the Schengen area for 90 days, the actual check carried out could be that the passport has at least six months validity remaining on the date of arrival.”

Your son’s passport, with less than three months to run at the time of your trip, will not qualify. Just as with businesses and governments, travellers must start making arrangements for Brexit, and I suggest you make a new year’s resolution to renew the passport in January. I predict that there will be a surge of applications in February and March as travellers realise what is about to happen. However, since as another consequence of Brexit is that credit for unexpired time is not being applied to passports, this will come at a financial cost.

So you might prefer to renew the document in April and hope that it isn’t caught in a queue – or that something might happen in the meantime that results in the UK not leaving the European Union.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder