Water Damage To Passport?

dexters_mum_2 · 16 May 2008 at 7:26AM

Morning,

Last night, my husband had his passport out as he is off for an interview today and stupidly (and I don't know how), he dropped it in a sink full of water!

Dried it out overnight on the radiator, but the pages are water marked and on the photo page there is some bubbling, a small bubble has appeared on the photo.

Can anyone tell me if the passport will still be able to be used, we are going on holiday to the USA in a month and the passport office advice line is £1 per minute, which is just ridiculous!

Any little bit of advice would be appreciated.

DM

olly300 · 16 May 2008 at 8:28AM

I would try and get a new one to avoid any hassle.

A friend of mine did something similar 2 years ago while away and managed to travel on his water damaged passport in the EU and Asia for about a year. However on the last occasion he used the passport when he flew back into the UK he was questioned by customs who told him to get a new passport as next time they may not allow him back into the country. (Brummie accents are useful for something.)

With the states I wouldn't take that risk. They are strict on passports even if they are genuine, and the airline is the one that can stop you even taking off if they think there is going to be trouble with your passport.

soolin · 16 May 2008 at 8:35AM

I agree with Olly, it might be worth risking it for the European Union but I wouldn't risk it to the States as they are already very cautious about people entering.

Crabman · 16 May 2008 at 5:19PM

Hi dexters_mum, I've moved this to the Travel Board.

Take a look through the following threads for past information which may be useful:

"Damaged" passport - define "Damaged"

Water Damaged Passport

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

benjus · 16 May 2008 at 6:27PM

I had this problem a few years ago... caused some minor issues. An immigration official in Bolivia thought I'd cut out a page because one page had a sort of plastic laminate overlapping the previous page and this had come unstuck so it looked like a page had been removed. I managed to convince him there was nothing wrong with it and continued using it in South America. On return to the UK they looked disdainfully at it and asked what had happened to it. I later travelled within the EU on the same passport with no problems. In fact within the EU I am often not asked to show my passport to immigration officials at all.

However, I would agree with previous posters that taking a chance with the US is not a good idea.

By the way, according to this page: https://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/contact-general.asp the passport advice line is 8p/min. I know we don't like 0870 numbers on here but it's not that bad...

mcduff16 · 16 May 2008 at 7:18PM

Hi there

I would get a new passport. This happened to one of my friends- they went to the passport office and showed the passport, the lady said they considered the passport "damaged and void", so they got a new passport.

El_Rey · 16 May 2008 at 10:39PM

I agree with everyone else - get a new passport. It is not as if you are travelling tomorrow so you have plenty of time to get a new one. It just isn't worth the risk.

Ms_Chocaholic · 16 May 2008 at 10:54PM

Check on

www.saynoto0870.com

for alternative numbers

Website link provided by Benjus indicates that passport line is open 24 hours

hammy_the_hammer · 18 May 2008 at 12:27AM

it will make no difference you will require a new passport

Tracey2609 · 18 May 2008 at 9:59PM

After watching reality shows like Airport, I think that you'd need a new passport. I know that it's not cheap, but at least it'll be valid for another 10 years...

AWOL_2 · 17 April 2009 at 3:17PM

Hi, I wanted to share this story with everyone.
My passport was damaged by some milton distinfectant leaking onto the back cover of my passport. The water out of the spay bottle was only slight however it managed to penetrate the passport and onto the back page of my passport.

The water seeped through underneath my passort picture, the damage was obvious to me and anyone else i pointed it out to. It was a big burgandy baloon around my passport picture, however the laminate etc was all firmly in tact.

I notice the damage two days before i was planned to fly to las vegas from gatwick airport. When i called the passport office they said any water damage to a passport makes it invalid and adviced me to get it replaced. However this would take 7 days, its only possible to renew a passport that is not damaged the same day! Crazy i know.

I changed my story quickly and said it just needs renewing, the guy said if you take it to the passport office and they deem that the passport is damaged they will cut the corner and i would not be able to fly at all.

I thought i have nothing to loose and would just risk it at the airport.
I manged to check in fine, travel to the states... caught internal flights to san franciso airport from las vegas and back and then back into the uk.
No one asked anyquestions at all.

They ran their finger over the picture at one point, shines a UV light on the pic.. but never questioned me about it at all..

I guess they didnt spot the waterdamage, like i said it was obvious.. before the flight i was getting mentally ready for the long drive back home as my friends fly off to vegas!!

My advice would be if you can get the passport renewed that do that.. but if you cant then theres no harm in risking it! ( at your own risk )

I have two years still to run on my passport, but will defeintly be renewing it before i travel again... i guess i was lucky... but cleared the states immigration with a water damaged passport so each case needs to be examined on a case by case basis.

Water Damage To Passport?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free