How are Brexit travel restrictions easing – outbound and inbound?

After the vote to leave the EU, the decades-long ease with which the British have holidayed, worked and lived in other member states has ended.

The UK negotiated for British travellers to the Schengen Area (covering much of Europe) to be limited to a stay of 90 days in any 180 days. So UK passport holders with second homes in the European Union cannot spend more than three months of the winter living there, unless they have a hard-to-obtain long-stay visa.

Conversely, the UK has made it much tougher for many European visitors to come to Britain – insisting they have passports rather than national ID cards. That decision has devastated inbound tourism in some areas of the UK.

Yet both these policies, chosen by the British government, are beginning to unwind.

These are the key questions and answers on how travel rules are easing between the UK and Europe.

What was the situation while the UK was in the EU?

Right up until the end of 2020, which included the Brexit transition period, British travellers could stay as long as they wished in the European Union, up to and including their passport expiry date (UK citizens who happen also to have a passport from Ireland or another EU nation still enjoy this freedom).

But when negotiating the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the government arranged for the UK to be treated as a “third country”. This means British travellers are subject to exactly the same restrictions as passport holders from many other states, such as Venezuela, Tonga and East Timor. Yet unlike those countries, the UK has extremely close ties with the European Union.

Were we expecting to join that particular club?

No. Immediately after the 2016 referendum, Boris Johnson assured UK travellers nothing would change after Brexit. He said: “British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to study; to buy homes and settle down.” That turned out not to be true.

At around the same time, his colleague, David Davis, the first Brexit secretary, promised: “There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside.”

What are the current rules for British travellers to the EU?

While the UK was in the EU, the fact that many British passports were issued for over 10 years was irrelevant. But the issue date is now significant. A UK passport must now comply with two rules for travel to…