Guidance

Damaged British passports: caseworker guidance

Tells HM Passport Office staff how to check a damaged British passport received as a supporting document, and how to replace a damaged British passport.

Documents

Damaged British passports

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Details

This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff how to assess British machine readable passports for damage, wear and tear or fraudulent tampering and how to handle applications to replace these passports. Machine readable passports have a burgundy or dark blue (soft) cover.

This guidance does not cover Old Blue (hardback style) passports.

Published 13 January 2012
Last updated 26 October 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added version 13.0 of guidance.

  2. Accessible version added.

  3. Updated guidance renamed as 'damaged British passports'.

  4. New guidance published.

  5. First published.