[lillostpenguin]

I have a friend who is a German citizen.
She has been in the UK for the last year.
Her passport expired in May 2008.
She is not able to afford the cost of a new European passport (I think its about £80 + £30 travel to London)
She will not be coming back to the UK for a few years (if ever) - but if she does, she will acquire a new passport in Germany.
Will she be able to travel to Germany on an expired passport?

Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Docar5187]

You can travel to your own country on an expired passport. If she is trying to go through other countries that may be a problem but a straight flight to Germany shouldn't be a problem.

[eben_sucks]

Even expired passports are still a legal form of identification. What they are not legal for is travel. Since returning to your country of citizenship is not considered travel, but return, it is fine.

How about this? Just have her bring her birth certificate and don't even worry about the passport. Both are more than enough.

[LaFeeFan7193]

Germany, together with other continental European countries like France, Belgium, or the Netherlands has signed the European Agreement on Regulations governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe of 13. December 1957.
This autorizes the members states to travel to others member states even on invalid travel documents.

(among others) France:
- French passport, valid or expired within the last five years
- Valid French identity card
- French identity card valid for three months

Belgium
- Belgian passport, valid or expired within the last 5 years
- Official identity card
- Provisional identity card

Federal Republic of Germany
- Passport, provisional passport, child's passport or child's travel certificate of the Federal Republic of Germany, valid or expired within the last year
- Official identity card of the Federal Republic of Germany, valid or expired within the last year
- Valid provisional identity card of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Although it says for Germany valid or expired within the last year I do not think that border police would make a big deal out of it since it used to be 5 years until the end of 2007 for Germany too. My other question would be what's about her identity card? Germans among others may also travel on their national ID cards within the Area of the European Union. So if her ID card would be valid or had become invalid shorter than for a year she still could use that for travel.

Source:
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/025.htm