The breaking news on the radio early Friday morning was Heathrow being closed. My immediate thought was that there had been a terrorist attack or there had been a crash. Thankfully, it was neither of those. A fire at a nearby sub-station had caused a power outage. Unfortunately, it meant that the airport had had to close down, and it wasn’t known when it was going to re-open. The closure meant that thousands of people’s travel plans were disrupted. Not just at Heathrow, but the knock on effect was felt around the World. It begs the question, why does one of the biggest airports in the World not have sufficient back up to run all of its systems? Surely the money lost on that day would have paid for it? 

The UK Government is going to raise the cost of passport applications from the 10th of April 2025. This is subject to Parliament approval, but with the majority the Government have there shouldn’t be a problem.

• the fee for a standard online application made from within the UK will rise from £88.50 to £94.50 for adults and £57.50 to £61.50 for children
• postal applications will increase from £100 to £107 for adults and £69 to £74 for children
• the fee for a Premium Service (1 day) application made from within in the UK will rise from £207.50 to £222 for adults and £176.50 to £189 for children
• the fee for a standard online application when applying from overseas for a UK passport will rise from £101 to £108 for adults and £65.50 to £70 for children
• overseas standard paper applications will increase from £112.50 to £120.50 for adults and £77 to £82.50 for children 

In 2024, where no further information was required, 99.7% of standard applications from the UK were processed within 3 weeks. You may want to look at the date of all your family passports to save yourself some.money.

The British Embassy in Spain is urging all British nationals resident in Spain to get a tarjeta de identidad de extranjero (TIE) as soon as possible, following new information from the Spanish Government that the old Green Certificate will not be recognised by the EU’s Entry Exit System.  

The EU have yet to announce a date for when the Entry Exit System (EES) will come into force, though it is believed to be later this year. Under this new border system, all non-EU short stay travellers will need to register their name, passport details, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) upon entering Spain or any other EU country. These details will be held on file for three years, meaning Britons making repeat visits to Spain within a three-year period will not have to go through the same registration process each time or have their passport stamped once EES is fully implemented.  

To be exempt from registering with the EES, British residents in the EU will need to show a valid uniform-format biometric card. For British residents in Spain, only a TIE will be accepted by Spanish and EU authorities. The Green Certificate will not be recognised because it does not meet the requirements to feature in Annex 22 of the Schengen Borders Code.   

As a result, Green Certificate holders attempting to enter Spain or any other country in the Schengen zone will not be able to use their Green Certificate as valid proof of residency and may be wrongly accused of overstaying in the EU. This could lead to them being denied entry and returned to the UK. There will be an appeals process, although it may require the Green Certificate holder to return to the UK until it is resolved.  

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