Will my passport keep me from passing ports?

October 1, 2007 8:49 AM

The cover of my passport is water damaged. Will I face problems at the airport?

I'm flying to Europe in three weeks out of Pearson Airport in Toronto. I got out my passport and noticed that the front cover is a little wrinkly and the ink inside has run slightly. The picture page is completely intact but has a few faint blue stains near the edge.

Should I go and beg to get it replaced before I fly, or is this fine?

posted by jon_kill to travel & transportation (16 comments total)

I dumped a glass of whiskey on my passport five years ago, and have been back and forth across the Atlantic about ten times since then without being stopped. Is your picture, identifying information, and barcode intact?
posted by annathea at 8:50 AM on October 1, 2007

Should be fine. Same thing happened with my previous passport which I used to fly to Europe several times before it expired.

When you say "the ink inside has run slightly" is any information illegible?
posted by vacapinta at 8:59 AM on October 1, 2007

i have an american passport that has the same kind of damage as yours. A little wrinkly from water damage and the ink on the interior has run a little bit. The wrinkle/water damage makes it a little tough to scan the barcode. Everything is very legible, the water damage is minimal. Its also been through a LOT of use, so the binding is just starting to show wear and tear.

I get scolded for it every time i go through customs (i've gone to london with it, paris, costa rica, brazil, canada, a number of other places probably) but have yet been refused. Though they keep threatening. I'll get to it one of these days...

I imagine yours would be fine. American passports probably get a closer looking at than Canadian ones, what with all the drama going on...
posted by modernsquid at 9:03 AM on October 1, 2007

All of the page 3 information is just fine. The laminate is intact, the picture is untouched, the barcode is full and complete, as is all the personal information. There are just a few blue blooms near the edge of the page. Page 1 and 2 have some blue stains but none of the writing has been smeared away completely. Wrinkling is minimal yet noticeable.

It looks like exactly what happened: it was on my nightstand and I spilled water on it.
posted by jon_kill at 9:11 AM on October 1, 2007

the customs agent will be a little angry because he/she will now have to type your passport number into the machine instead of it automatically reading, you get a little speech and tell then how it got that way and off you go with no problem .


on preview, what modernsquid said
posted by kanemano at 9:21 AM on October 1, 2007

Just take this opportunity to be nice to the customs agent and you won't even get a scolding.

It's not as if it's wise to bother applying for a new passport right now unless it's absolutely necessary, what with the processing clusterfuck from the new passport requirements to travel within Mexico-US-Canada. (Well, perhaps Canada's processing clusterfuck isn't quite as bad as the US's, but I imagine there's still a longer-than-typical wait.)
posted by desuetude at 9:37 AM on October 1, 2007

Canadian passports are prone to this -- I left mine in a humid environment for a bid, and the same thing happened. The picture page is well-protected though, so unless there are vast amounts of ink obscuring the information, you'll be fine. I've traveled with my smeared passport numerous times with no passport-related issues.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:48 AM on October 1, 2007

I once managed to fall into 2 different rivers with a passport. A lot of the stamps inside were runny and smeared, and this included stamps from Colombia, Bolivia and Turkey.
In Miami, the not-so-friendly customs person took one look at my passport, and I was politely escorted to a 'special' area with other brown-skinned undesirables, but fortunately I got a Puerto Rican immigration guy who, once I told him I was traveling to meet my (then) girlfriend was all smiles and sent me on my way.
posted by signal at 10:11 AM on October 1, 2007

Mine looks the same as yours. Caught by torrential rains in Tulum, but it's never given me a problem. This was also only a few months ago so I haven't traveled extensively on it. I'm unwilling to replace it at this point because of the considerable time delay through the gov't, so just smile and explain and they'll grouse at you.. but let you through.
It's probably strike 1 in terms of customs, if you have a few other things that may strike them as sketchy, you might want to think about replacing it.
posted by lilithim at 10:21 AM on October 1, 2007

Mine went through a washer/dryer cycle and for years no one cared, but this summer a customs official in Heathrow threatened to not let me through. I don't know how close I really came, but it was definitely an unpleasant 10 minutes while she went to "confer" with other officers, and then refused to stamp the actual passport in favor of stamping an insert.

It was more damaged than yours sounds, though -- the front cover had peeled away from the backing in two corners.

This reminds me: get a new passport.
posted by nev at 10:36 AM on October 1, 2007

I ran my passport through two wash/dry cycles once, so that the laminated cover page completely separated from the cloth cover, and ended up replacing it at great cost and expense at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest because I got such a ration of crap from the customs people getting into Hungary that I didn't want to not be let back into the U.S. afterwards.

But that was pretty severe damage, and I suspect that if I had really needed to, I would have been able to get back in the country, it might have just meant a hassle.

(As it was, I got this really old-school 'temporary' passport with a shady glued-in photo and typed information, which pretty much looks like the sort of thing you'd imagine a guy making in a basement somewhere. I traveled on that for almost a year and got no end of strange looks.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:56 AM on October 1, 2007

My boyfriend's passport is bent, spindled, folded and mutilated, but I've never known him to have a problem.
posted by crinklebat at 11:45 AM on October 1, 2007

Well, perhaps Canada's processing clusterfuck isn't quite as bad as the US's, but I imagine there's still a longer-than-typical wait.

No, they're clusterfucked too. Officially, Canadian passports are currently subject to an 8-9 week delay when applying by mail, although it's only 2 weeks in person. It took me 18 weeks (the estimate when I applied was "only" 10 weeks) to get a Canadian passport this last spring/summer, although I was applying from within the U.S., which generally takes somewhat longer.
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:08 PM on October 1, 2007

i ran mine (canadian) through the wash and had to go through US customs while it was still wet. the agent made a big show of handling it like i'd just puked up an ebola-infested lung full of blood onto it and gave me the kind of lecture that an 8-year-old gives to a stuffed pony who's made an imaginary mess on the carpet.

seriously, i think they train them to be assholes, and a little bit of runny ink will give them the excuse they're looking for to make you feel like osama bin laden hisself.

...but they'll still let you through.
posted by klanawa at 6:41 PM on October 1, 2007

Me too (Australian passport, leaking water bottle in backpack). Used it quite a few times in Europe and South East Asia with nothing worse than a few strange looks, but last time I came back into Australia I got taken aside and warned that I'd better get it replaced before trying to leave the country again.
posted by une_heure_pleine at 6:51 AM on October 2, 2007

(Well, perhaps Canada's processing clusterfuck isn't quite as bad as the US's, but I imagine there's still a longer-than-typical wait.)


The US passport backlog has been overcome at this point. Now's a great time to get or renew US passports before new rules get applied (again) this coming Janurary.
posted by garlic at 8:40 AM on October 2, 2007