If Britain votes out of EU, what happens to your passports?

[Gaybutton]

If Britain Votes Out of the EU Tomorrow, What Happens to Our Passports?

22 June, 2016

Will we have to apply for new, non-burgundy passports if we vote for a Brexit?

It’s the one document you don’t want to be without, especially for those of us living overseas.

Passports cost a lot of money to replace and can take weeks to arrive (if you don’t pay extra for the one-day fast track.)

But as many eagle-eyed jet setters will have noticed, our passports say ‘ European Union ‘ across the top of them.

Naturally, this has caused a lot of people to worry about what will happen if we leave the EU after the referendum tomorrow.

Although our passports are issued by the UK government, they share a format with the other 27 EU member states.

All countries issue documents with burgundy covers, embossed with the words ‘European Union’ at the top, followed by the name of the country, its coat of arms, the word ‘passport’ and the biometric passport symbol at the bottom.

So, if we leave, will we have to apply for new ones? Will we have to pay the full amount? If everyone’s applying for them, will it take months for the backlog to clear?

When Mirror Online approached the Passport Office, they refused to comment.

Their press team at the Home Office told us they had entered purdah – a four-week period where official bodies cannot enter into conversation before the referendum – and could not comment either way.

The most likely (and probably easiest) solution is that our passports will be valid up until their date of expiration.

Then, once we apply for our new passport as usual, we will be issued with our new, non-EU passports.

One financial journalist seemed to confirm this by stating on Twitter that our passports are issued by the UK government – and not the European Union – so they will remain valid.

It’s important to note that no member state has ever left the EU. It’s unprecedented, so nobody really knows what would happen if we voted for a Brexit.

Commentators have speculated that nothing at all would happen for at least two years as Britain enters into negotiations, so we’d at least have some time to process it all.

Story courtesy of The Daily Mirror

http://pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/2257 ... passports/

[Bangkokian]

Then maybe the sentence "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary" might mean something -- but I doubt it.

[Oliver]

Who'll need passports? Those of us who were in Thailand over the past few weeks will be aware that even the possibility of Brexit, as recognised by opinion polls, was enough to send the value of the pound tumbling. Were the Poujadistes to win, with their odious trinity of Johnson, Gove and Farage, we'll be spending our holidays in Bognor. In the famous final words of King George V, "Bugger Bognor!"

[gerefan]

"Story from the Daily Mirror".....apart from the Sun gutter press of the worst kind. Ignore.
Dont spoil your board with their bullshit!

[Jun]

Utter garbage from that left wing trash. Presumably another scare story put out by a pro-EU newspaper.

If we vote out, passports will be renewed when they expire, as normal. After an exit is properly negotiated, the passport will presumably be redesigned to a non-EU model & that will be the one issued when renewal comes up & not before.

There is so much bullshit in this referendum campaign.

[Captain Kirk]

Almost as bad as the "checkpoints at the borders" bullshit they were coming up with for the Scottish referendum. In or out, the vast majority of people will notice no difference in their daily lives. Truly wish folk would stop listening to politicians (or voting for them).

[billyhouston]

"Were the Poujadistes to win, with their odious trinity of Johnson, Gove and Farage, we'll be spending our holidays in Bognor."

The sort of kind words that we have come to expect from a Grauniad reader who aspires to be a member of the chattering classes.

[Up2u]

Brexit vote would cost British expats the right to live and work in Europe, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy warns
June 2, 2016
British expats could lose the right to live and work in Spain in the event of a Brexit vote, the country’s Prime Minister has suggested.

Mariano Rajoy said “it would be very negative for British citizens” if Britain were to leave the EU, because they would no longer be able to move freely around Europe.

More than 400,000 British citizens live and work in Spain... (read more)... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06 ... -and-work/

[Up2u]

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Brexit (HBO):

[Jun]

Brexit vote would cost British expats the right to live and work in Europe, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy warns
June 2, 2016

I can cope with that. Most of the countries I would most like to work in or retire in are outside the EU.
Work: Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore
Retire: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore

Anyhow, the polls close in just over 3 hours.
Within 3 hours and 5 minutes we should have a very good idea of the result, based on exit polls.