Should I carry a passport around everywhere I go in the UK?

12/18/2020 9:14:31 PM

There is still no legal requirement in the UK to carry your passport with you all the time.
Traveling around I take it with me, as it is safer on my person than left behind in a hostel or even in a hotel room.

But when staying with friends I leave it in their house.

I do usually also carry my national (EU) ID card but have not needed that any time in the UK, apart from when checking in at hotels.

In your case I would leave it in the place you live. Your parents may well want it with them when they travel around or stay in a hotel which they do not trust, but if they can leave it in a safe place where you live it is acceptable by law.

When this question was asked not many people would ask for your age when going into a bar or buying alcohol, these days that is more the norm. So if you live in the UK for longer, are or look like you are under 30, best get a recognized ID with your age on it. Your passport, or in many cases a national ID card from home, should work, but as not everybody in the UK knows those, you may want to get a UK based age card or driving license.

11/4/2013 9:03:39 AM

Car rental asks for passports for non-UK residents as a surety for where to bill you if you fail to return the car etc. Same with most of the hotels and self-catering places we stayed at last summer. They want to see it, and some take photocopies of it for their records. If you live in the UK, they have other resources to find you.

3/20/2012 11:45:14 AM

I’ve never needed to show my passport in the UK once I’ve arrived, and that includes checking in at hotels, arriving to visit a business, renting a car and so on. I have an obvious Canadian accent and do obvious tourist things in addition to occasionally doing business things. (With grown children, I never have to prove I’m old enough for anything.) In theory I had to show my passport to get my train pass validated, but I don’t remember them actually asking for it.

That is in stark contrast to the USA, where I quite often have to show it in fairly mundane circumstances. They’ll ask for a drivers license, and if yours is “out of state” then they want something else. Every hotel checkin, every car rental, picking up my badge at a conference, even buying sudafed at a drugstore all needed my passport. So clearly this varies from country to country.

12/9/2019 9:40:47 PM

Certainly not. As a foreigner who lived in the UK for four years, I definitely only needed my passport for international travel. I used my New Zealand photo driver’s license initially for ID (e.g., to get into a bar), and then my UK one. For opening bank accounts and others where you sometimes require two forms, then you bring your passport.

The UK is not like Russia or Uzbekistan where police on the street can and do stop you without cause and demand ID (in my case, six times in one day in Tashkent, Uzbekistan). And in the event they DO need your ID, a driver’s license generally suffices – or they can go with you to your place of residence to get your passport if you for some reason got into serious strife.

I can only think of a handful of cases that I needed my passport. To open a bank account, to prove my visa status for starting a new job, for renting a flat / staying in a hostel, and you definitely need it for hiring a car. I remember this one as I tried to argue it, but had to eventually go back home and get my passport. I wasn’t pleased.

3/20/2012 2:46:34 PM

You shouldn’t need your passport everywhere you go, and I wouldn’t risk carrying it with you at all times.

However, if you plan to go anywhere where you need to be at least 18 years old, you will need some form of identity. And in the UK passports and driving licenses are the most commonly used. A doorman at a bar wouldn’t accept a college identity. However you can apply for a UK identity card, such as CitizenCard, which means you don’t need to carry your passport with you.

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About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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