A British tourist was wrongly booted out of Norway after border staff at Oslo Airport bungled EU passport rules, despite the holidaymaker’s document being Schengen-compliant.
The traveller had jetted off from Edinburgh to Oslo with a Norwegian airline on February 22 for what was supposed to be a splendid week-long trip with their partner and mates.
But upon touching down, they were abruptly held by Norwegian border guards who mistakenly judged their passport to be short on validity – a decision now deemed to be a blunder. The Independent reports that border force told the hapless visitor: “Your passport is issued 26 March 2015 and is therefore considered valid only until the 26 March 2025. Your planned departure from Norway and the Schengen area is 1 March 2025, and the passport is not valid for three months after the date of departure as the border regulation demands. You are therefore expelled from Norway.”
The astonished passenger was then detained and shipped back to Britain, clutching an official notice of expulsion from Norway.
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The measure seems to fly in the face of the actual stipulations laid out by the Schengen Borders Code, which dictates entry protocols for countries within the Schengen Zone, encompassing Norway. According to these guidelines, passports need to meet just two core criteria.
In this instance, the traveller’s passport had been issued on 26 March 2015, with an expiry date of 26 November 2025. This placed it well within the 10-year issue limit for entry until 25 March 2025, and it was valid for nearly nine months beyond their planned departure on 1 March 2025. The visitor was legally entitled to remain in Norway until late June.
The traveller’s trip was comfortably within the allowable 90-day period for UK citizens in the Schengen Zone without needing a visa. This case has highlighted potential inconsistencies in how Nordic border officials interpret and apply rules regarding passport validity.
An airline spokesperson told The Independent, “We regret the disruption to our passengers due to inconsistent interpretation of Schengen passport rules by the Nordic countries. As an airline, we must comply with local border control directives, which are currently unclear. We have urged the authorities to provide clear, unified guidance to airlines, in order to prevent further passenger issues and avoid penalties for our company.”
Passports for third-country nationals such as UK citizens travelling to the Schengen area have to be:
British traveller should legally be allowed to go to Norway the day before their passport reaches its 10th birthday, so long as they had at least three months before the expiry date printed on the document.
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