When travelling abroad, it’s important to ensure you have all your documents in order before you travel. You need an up-to-date passport, and you may also need other documents such as travel insurance and potentially even a visa.
You need to ensure you have all of this ready in advance before you travel, as not having your documents with you when you get to the airport could result in you being denied boarding – meaning you’ll be stuck at the airport with no way of going on your holiday.
Most people know that passports need to be in date when you fly, and most countries also have rules for how long your passport needs to be valid for while you’re there. For example, within the European Union, your passport needs to be valid for at least three months after the date you plan on returning home.
However, one woman recently made a huge blunder that completely ruined her holiday when she failed to check one thing about her burgundy passport before she attempted to get on a flight.
Olivia Alcantara was due to head off on a family holiday, but when she got to the airport and got her passport out of her bag, she noticed she’d made a huge mistake – as she’d brought the wrong document with her.
In a video on TikTok, Olivia was filmed burying her head in her hands against her suitcase as she held up the passport she’d brought with her. While it was the same shade of burgundy as the old UK passport, the front was very different.
Instead of bringing her actual passport with her, Olivia had instead packed a LEGO passport.
The video was overlaid with the viral Jet2 Holidays advert sound as the camera panned to her dad, who looked very disappointed with his daughter’s blunder.
A LEGO passport looks just like a real passport, but it has the LEGO logo on the front. You take the passport to any LEGO certified store and can have it stamped, and each store around the world has unique stamps.
Commenters on the video were baffled at how Olivia could have made the mistake, as many said they check their passport multiple times before leaving the house, let alone getting to the airport.
One person said: “Who doesn’t check their passport 1000x before they even get to the airport?!” Another added: “It’s dad’s fault for trusting his kids. He should have nagged, checked and made sure, no matter how much the family insisted things were fine.”
Passport checks to make before you travel
The first thing you should always check before you travel is that your passport is up-to-date. Passports in the UK are usually valid for 10 years for adults, so if you have a new blue passport, it should be valid, as it has only been issued since 2020. If yours is still burgundy, however, you must check that it is still valid.
Different countries have different rules about passport validity, which can be as long as six months after the date you plan to travel home, so it’s important to check the laws for the country you’re visiting.
In general, the EU and Schengen countries require that your passport be valid for three months from the date you plan to leave, while in Australia, India, and the UAE, you need six months from the date you arrive. The US, Canada, and Japan only require your passport to be valid for the length of your stay, but having extra months is advised to avoid any issues.