[Closed] travelling on a damaged passport

Not that its all that helpful, as a sample of 1, but a passport control guy once told me my (very battered) passport was showing signs of water damage and I might want to think about replacing it.

I couldn't really see any major issues with it and I think I used it for another 3 years or so until it ran out, no-one else ever commented on it..

The guy suggested that certain destinations, e.g. USA, would be more likely to get twitchy than others.

Likewise - I once got my passport commented on and suggested I should think about replacing it, but never refused travel. That was quite a while ago now though.

Maybe with the recent security status of this country being lifted to severe it might be worth a call to your local passport office.
You don't want a ruined trip.

Left an old passport in a pair of trousers, put them through the wash and forgot about them. Didn't wear the trousers for a long time and found a mouldy, water damaged passport in the pocket. I brushed the mould off and successfully travelled fro Edinburgh to Peru via Heathrow, NY & Miami (transfers) and back again, staying in NY for a few days and safely back to the UK. This was in the October directly after 9/11! The remains of the World Trade Centre were still smouldering. In fact, in when leaving NY to fly back to the UK, I got onto the plane, realised that I had left my fleece in the boarding area, got up, got off the plane, back through the gate and successfully reclaimed my fleece!

I thought my passport was fine to travel with. Until I tried to go from Edinburgh to Spain via Gatwick, to meet a chum for a snowboarding holiday. Lady at the BA desk told me that there was no way I would get onto a plane with my passport as the laminate on the picture page was coming away. So I didn't get to travel.

You takes your chances... I wouldn't again. The bus ride back from the airport when I should have been on a plane was depressing to say the least!

My OH has a wrinkly water-damaged passport and has never had any trouble with it. Everything is fully legible though.

My passport is in bits, including the picture page (pages splitting in half etc) and it's just been extended for a year (plus, I look nothing like my photo from 10 years ago).

I traveled on a water dmaaged passport for a while with no issues. iOne guy said I sould probably look at getting a new one. I checked a bit later and the paper had swelled round the picture, and then the resulting ridge wore through, meaning I could have slid another picture in underneath.

I think it was due for a replacement pretty soon afterwards, so I did the sensible thing.

Dog eared is one thing - they're supposed to last 10 years and they've got have 30 pages for stamps. "Possibly tampered with" is another.

Have another look at it and see if you think someone who's having a bad day and doens't like your wardobe choices might have an excuse to make your life difficult.

You'll be fine provided its all legible and the plastic is still stuck down over the picture, ie it doesn't look like its been tampered with. I sail and have seen some serious waterlogged passports.

The funniest passport story I have is a colleague who had a new passport but a photo which was clearly not particularly recent. The passport control guy in a Middle Eastern country refused to let him in as he said he didn't recognize him and anyway the passport belonged to a much younger man ! They kept my colleague waiting 2 hours. I laughed as it served him right for being so vain

Ive checked on the Agency website & looked at their definition of a damaged passport. There are no pages missing, its not had any ink or chemical spillages, the laminate is still securely fastened down and all info is perfectly legible. My only worry is if the chip is in some way damaged, but as the laminate is perfect and has not lifted at all I can't see how it would be.
Spoken to the Agency chap as well, he agrees (from my description) that it does not sound damaged but if worried go to the immigration desk at the airport & get it scanned.
I wonder, can you still fly if the chip plays up? All the info is there on the page and can be scanned and checked manually etc.

My nearly new very shiny barely used rfid chipped passport came for a ride with me in the states recently. It rained - a lot and my passport barely survived. All went well (ie check in and security etc in the US) until I arrived at Heathrow where security were mightily annoyed with the state of the passport and suggested in no uncertain terms that I think very carefully about traveling on it again.

You don't need a chip. You jusr go to the no chip lane. Usually you wait a whole lot more as thats the only lane kids are allowed on.

I'd risk a europe trip, but not across the pond with it.
Merkans will get (more) obnoxious if the biometrics bits doesn't work.

Only going to Spain!

Buy a cover and put it in that. My mate had to go and buy one before a flight once as they wouldn't accept his as the cover was starting come apart. Which I thought weird at the time but it got him on the flight.

Ive flown into west africa ( equatorial guinea) and baku on a washed passport. Both times got quizzed on it promised to get a new one when the relevent visa expired.

Got through but i prefer traveling without the quiz.

Never had hassle going round europe with it though.

My passport is a bit threadbare....although not coming apart on the photo page. I never kept it in a protector for years and have travelled quite far on it. The only places anyone said anything was the USA where they said (on the way in I think) that I would need it replaced before my next visit. In Europe no-one seems to care if you are travelling on another European passport.

Don't worry man.

For quite a few years my passport had a scrawled VISA written and signed by the DJ Erick Morillo (badly). Met him in the restaurant next to Pacha in Ibiza and drunkenly thought it was a great idea.

Been to numerous countries without issue - the only place that did pull me aside was leaving Australia to go to Singas a few years back and the immigration guy said I "wouldn't be able to get into any countries with it like that". He wasn't too impressed with "I got INTO Australia with it like that"

As long as it's legible to a human and machine readable it's fine. I washed my passport when I was in Canada once and got into the US with it when it was still wet.