Passports

The power to issue Isle of Man British passports is derived from the Royal Prerogative.  The Isle of Man is an issuing authority for British passports and complies with Her Majesty’s Passport Office issuance policy for British passports.  On the Isle of Man this is formally exercised by the Lieutenant Governor on behalf of the Crown. 

The powers of the Lieutenant Governor allow the issuance of an Isle of Man British Passport to:

• a person resident in the Isle of Man; or
• a person who is born in the Isle of Man and who is resident in the United Kingdom; for example a student at University; or
• a person whom His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor considers there are exceptional grounds for example a person born overseas to parents who were Isle of Man born, and were serving in the RAF or Navy at the time the child was born and the child was then brought up in the Isle of Man and went to University in the United Kingdom. 

The powers of the Lieutenant Governor do not extend to the issue of passports to British nationals resident overseas where the Prerogative is exercised by the Home Secretary exclusively.

Passports with validity over 10 years

Since 2001, some adult British passports were issued with a validity longer than 10 years.

This is because if you renewed your passport before it expired you were allowed to have the time left on your old passport added to your new passport. The maximum validity period possible was 10 years and 9 months. This means that you can't use the expiry date to check if your adult passport will be valid under the new Schengen Border Rules.

From the beginning of September 2018 extra validity is no longer added to British passports and the maximum validity for a new adult British passport will be 10 years, and for a child passport it will be 5 years. This change has been made to follow recommendations set out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and to help provide clarity about passport validity in the future.

You can use the UK Passport Validity Checker to see if your passport will be compliant for travel to Europe.

Overseas applications

An applicant resident overseas must apply online through the overseas passport services of Her Majesty's Passport Office