travel with expired passport
 

I'm an EU citizen, and my country (Greece) is part of the Schengen area. I currently live in France, and I'm going back to see my family for Christmas.

The problem is, my passport has expired in 31/12/2004 (that's December 31st for the american friends ...). Since I don't need it to be here in France, and since I don't have plans to travel outside Schengen for the time being, I totally neglected to renew it!

I have a transit flight from Paris to Athens through Zurich and back. It seems that the airports are not open for Schengen citizens, yet. You think there's going to be a problem?

As an aside, I went to the UK with this passport and my ID card. In fact, the immigration office said that it was good that I had it, even if it is expired. They also mentioned that it is valid, 5 years after its expiration date, for identification purposes.

Any suggestions?

welcome to flyertalk, dee_em :)

I moved your post into a new thread. To help you better, please specify which country you're travelling to.

regards,

chrissxb
moderator
europe forum

Even if Switzerland (or Zurich airport) is not yet part of the Schengen area you should be OK with a (valid) ID card from a Schengen country.
I have traveled a lot to Switzerland (or connected in Zurich) carrying only my ID card (also from a Schengen country).

I think you’re not even obliged to have a passport. I got my first passport because of a trip to the US, but had been traveling in Europe (including Switzerland) for years using only my ID card. (And I think that was even before the Schengen aera existed...)

National ID cards have been valid for travel within the EU (and certain other European countries) for as long as I can remember. Nationals of what is now the EU have not needed a passport to travel to Switzerland since at least the 1970s.

So - as long as you have valid ID you don't need a passport.

All true, and finally, you do not need to go through Swiss immigration since you are just transiting.