Identifying a damaged U S passport is important to you. Recognize common hazards that cause most damage. Rank the severity of damage and prepare for consequences that damage produces.
The top sales person lingers at the seaside and listens to the waves splash on the white sand. She has won first place and now enjoys her much deserved prize, a vacation paid for by her company. She is unaware that the passport she dropped into water will force her to remain longer.
This champion sales person enters the airport for her trip home. She recites for the customs employee how her passport got submerged in a sink containing water. The customs employee states that water certainly can harm travel documents. Customs then dutifully explains that she will not be allowed to go back to her home country until she acquires a replacement passport.
Leading Causes of Damage To Passports
Later, near her hotel, a travel consultant gives our unfortunate sales representative a cup of tea. The travel expert beckons her to sit in a chair against a wall on which hangs a painting of a white cruise ship. Many substances can do damage to a passport, the travel agent offers. He recalls one tourist who dumped ink on his travel documents as well as a mountain climber who jumped onto his passport while wearing climbing shoes. The pointy spikes made his visas look like Swiss cheese. Some American passports get dented by heavy objects or people fold their travel documents and visas like newspapers. Harm caused by water occurs regularly and humidity is also bad for passports.
What Damage Looks Like
How can voyagers learn to recognize when they need to replace their travel passport? A photo that appears to the fingers or eyes to be scraped, warped, disfigured, or unclear demonstrates the existence of damage. Letters or stamps that appear wore down or poorly applied also indicate a damaged condition.
Customs officials may say a passport is damaged if the computer chip implanted does not function. Passports now contain a computer chip and or a bar code. Both get read with a scanner device. Customs officials may consider the passport to be damaged if the bar code becomes unreadable. A chip can sustain electronic or physical damage.
Consequences
Basically, the consequences involve inability and loss. One inability you may suffer is the inability to go again back from where you came. Imagine how the shock of being blocked must feel. You sit in an airport. You have a pocket filled with money. Planes fly back to the country of departure. Unfortunately, the scratched and torn passport does not credibly identify which country you came from. You feel stuck like the queen chess piece sitting on the back row of a chess board. The travel rules say the queen, while on the back row, can move forward to a new square. It also can move side to side, to a new square. The queen cannot move backward.
Loss can be illustrated by using the topic of anonymity. If tourists must substitute a scraped and dented travel document, they need follow processes and employ government officials. The tourist may have to speak to police agencies. This likely entails signing a few police documents. Oh yes, you must reapply for a replacement passport personally. Every signature certifies that you were present at that place. You will lose anonymity.
The delay to proceed home can bring about a loss of financial resources. Departing gets held up because of the wait for delivery of new undamaged travel documents. How crucial is the deprivation of money on account of missing a week away from work? An unforeseen loss of money can kick a hole in a vacation budget.
The replacement passport and visas arrived in about one week. Her trip back home made her happy especially because she had brought extra money for emergency purposes. She promises herself to secure a replacement passport and visas before they get too worn. She promises to protect her travel documents when she travels in the future.
What to know about a damaged American passport is shown here. Remain aware of possible hazards that inflict the greatest harm. Review how to sort damage in terms of severity and shrink the hurtful outcomes that damage creates.
