Some Practical Information | Passports
It is essential that first and last names on flight tickets exactly match those on the passport otherwise passengers may not be permitted to travel and any applicable insurance will be ineffective.
A standard ten year British passport is required for all holidays on this website which must be valid for at least six months beyond your planned date of return travel, however please see any exceptions to this below. If your passport expires earlier than this, it may still be acceptable but you should contact your local passport office or the consulate or embassy of the country to be visited for detailed advice.
Visitors whose passports are not valid for the correct length of time face the possibility of being refused entry or subject to delays while their passport is replaced.
Customers applying for a new passport, or renewing an expired one, should allow eight weeks for the application to be processed and up to three months if applying between February and August. If you are 16 or over and haven't yet got a passport, our recommendation is that you should apply for one at least 6 weeks before your holiday. The Passport Service has to confirm your identity before issuing your first passport and from October 2006 will ask you to attend an interview in order to do this. Lost, stolen and new passports will take one week minimum to replace. It is essential that you check whether you are in possession of a valid passport before you make your holiday booking. If your passport is endorsed in any way, you should check immigration requirements with the relevant embassy or consulate of the country to be visited.
SPECIAL NOTE: ALL passengers (including children) entering the USA on the visa waiver programme will be required to hold a machine-readable passport (MRP). An MRP includes the holder's personal details eg. name, date of birth, nationality and their passport number contained in two lines of text at the base of the photo page. If you are NOT in possession of an MRP you will need to obtain a visa for entry, or apply for a new passport. Travellers without an MRP who do not have a visa will be denied entry into the USA and possibly fined. The vast majority of non-machine readable British passports that are in circulation were issued outside of the UK.
All visitors to the USA who have a passport issued after 26 October 2005, must have a digitised photo appearing in their passport. All passports issued by the UK Passport Office now automatically feature digitised photos. Visitors with a digitised photo in their passport, and those with passports issued prior to 26 October 2005 that feature sealed in photos, will be able to enter the USA under the visa waiver programme.
ALL visitors to South Africa are required to have two unused blank pages in their passport to enable an entry visa to be issued upon arrival in the country.
Holders of British Subject Passports and Non-British Citizens
We can only advise on immigration requirements if your passport was issued in the UK and endorsed "British Citizen". Holders of a British Subject passport and non-British citizens should check immigration requirements with the relevant embassy or consulate of all the countries you will be visiting or passing through.
Further information from the Identity and Passport Service can be obtained as follows:
Advice line: 0300 222 0000 7am-11pm daily (calls charged at your network provider's standard national rate);
Website: http://www.passport.gov.uk.
NO HIDDEN EXTRAS: All prices shown include ALL compulsory charges (Fuel Supplement, Air Passenger Duty & Flight Supplement where applicable). Book with confidence: We are members of ABTA and all our air-inclusive holidays are financially protected by the Civil Aviation Authority under the ATOL scheme
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