Germany: passport and entry requirements
Germany is a Schengen country, so a UK family travels visa-free on the usual passport rules. The EU's new digital entry checks are now taken at the border, and some temporary controls are back on its land crossings.
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Your passport
Every passport has to have been issued less than ten years before the day you arrive, and still have at least three months left on it after the day you leave. The ten-year test catches passports renewed early, before September 2018, when the extra months added on at renewal don't count towards the ten years. Go through each family member's passport as you book, since children's passports run for five years against an adult's ten and rarely expire together. Renew any that are getting close, as it takes a few weeks to come through.
Getting in
There's no visa for a holiday, and you can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period. That allowance is shared across the whole Schengen area, most of the EU plus a few neighbours like Norway and Switzerland, so days spent in any of them count towards the same total. It only matters if you're in Europe for long or repeated spells within the same six months.
On arrival you're registered on EES, the EU's entry and exit system, which records your photo and fingerprints digitally in place of stamping your passport. It's free, takes a few minutes and the record lasts three years.
ETIAS, a pre-travel authorisation the EU plans to bring in, isn't running yet and has no confirmed start date, so there's nothing to apply for now. When it starts it'll cost €20 (last checked August 2026) and last three years, and under-18s won't pay the fee, though each traveller still needs their own.
Germany has brought back temporary checks at its land borders, so keep passports easy to reach if you're arriving overland by car or train rather than flying in.
Every child needs their own passport, whatever their age, since none can travel on a parent's. Under-12s aren't fingerprinted for EES, though officials can still take their photo, and when ETIAS starts each child needs their own too, free for under-18s.
Official sources
Last checked 11 August 2026. Passport and entry rules change, so always confirm on GOV.UK before you book or travel.
