getting your passport damaged...
By doggydimon
@doggydimon (1369)
Philippines
March 10, 2013 4:45am CST
I had an office mate of mine whose passport was accidentally damaged by those immigration officers. The first page was a bit torn on the side. When she returned here, she went straight to the Foreign Affairs office to have it reissued. But to her dismay, it will take a long time before she will have her passport again due to the long process for reissuing damaged passports. It is said that an investigation will still take place if it was really an accident or she has tried to tamper it.
Also from one site, I was able to read this notice to be extremely careful of your passport when you go thru immigrations. In some countries they say that some immigration officers would intentionally rip off one of the pages of your passport. In this way, they can put you on the black list and have you questioned when you are ready to depart that certain country. And when that happens, that is the time when they will harass you and sometimes extort money from you. I don't know if it is true but it wouldn't hurt if we try to be careful and set our eyes on our passports especially when someone else is handling it.
Did this happen to you? What are your thoughts about it?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@blackrusty (3519)
• Mexico
10 Mar 13
well as I dont get on a plane to fly I dont have that issue but when i got my passport in may of last year I went with the plastic card it would be great if they did away with the book for in all countrys and all went platic
@doggydimon (1369)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
Nice idea! How does that work? Haven't heard that there is a plastic card passport already available... Do other countries honor that already?
@blackrusty (3519)
• Mexico
10 Mar 13
I can travel by land across to canada or mexico and I can fly with in the contry in mexico or canada with extra paper work that I get here
@Raine38 (12257)
• United States
10 Mar 13
I have read about that warning. Since then I make sure that whenever I leave the immigration counter, my passport pages are complete. I even make sure that I can see whatever it is that they are doing with my passport while they have it. A couple of times I was waved back by the immigration officer because I'm getting too close to his/her booth. I would just give a small smile and say sorry and its no big deal.
@doggydimon (1369)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
That's the way. Be very vigilant but do it discreetly so that the immigration officers won't get annoyed.
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
10 Mar 13
I travel a lot around the world, and I must say that I have not had such an experience so far. But, I have also heard one or two episodes when such a thing has happened in the past. It is a bit scary and it could really be a harrowing experience if anyone is detained for that.
Cheers!
Ram
@doggydimon (1369)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
I for one, don't want this to happen to me. I wouldn't like the thought of not being able to travel because my passport is still for reissuance. And also, I don't like to be detained in a prison especially when that is abroad.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
25 Apr 13
So if that were true, we would have to be very careful with our passport without letting it torn by the immigration officers in case they might do something wrong to us. It sounds awful to me if they should intentionally rip off one of the pages of the passport. I am wondering if we can stop them from doing so.
@mensab (4200)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
this is crazy. fortunately, this has not happened to me, yet. i could not imagine how immigration officers could do such things, but i heard stories. i hope that the embassies should be more understanding to the situation by expediting the request for the issuance of new passports. there is no one in his/her right mind that will ripped or damaged the passport to pay more and invest time and effort in undergoing the procedures of passport re-issuance.
@doggydimon (1369)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
Maybe the embassies are quite paranoid with the possible scenes from spy movies of people trying to change their identity. 
@toniganzon (72279)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
I've read about that on Facebook. It was posted by one of the users there since she had experienced the same thing and she paid a great deal to the immigration officer. She adviced that it's better to have a photocopy of the pages of your passport just as a proof that you didn't damage it yourself and to show the existing page that was torn off.
I haven't experienced it and hopefully it won't happen to me at all. I will keep my eyes on my passport all the time when travelling.
@doggydimon (1369)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
Having it photocopied would be a great help...Just remember to check your passport thoroughly before leaving the immigration counter. I know almost all of us just get our passport from the officer without looking at it...
@lampar (7584)
• United States
11 Mar 13
That's probably true in certain country that don't welcome your visit into their land especially if you don't belong to a specific type of faith like majority of the immigration officers and their majority population. They can even make your entry record inside their immigration office's computer data base disappear without a trace, let's alone damage your passport's page. Some of these people who are holding position of power can be very vicious and callous, whenever they are in need of harassing you and extort money from you, many of these civil servants see foreign tourists into their country as gold mine and will do anything to make some quick bucks aside from government fixed salary, so be careful if you plan to visit a foreign country that is beyond your own shore, do your homework first before you even set foot into those backward land. 
@airasheila (5454)
• Philippines
10 Mar 13
i have read that advice from one of my friends on one of the social networking site. and as i have read it, i really feel disappointed to those people of immigration who are doing that. i mean why they are doing it to their fellow. are they not afraid of the so-called "karma". things will not always go on the way they wanted, as God never sleeps. hence, for every good deeds that we do, much more blessings will come but if we do harm to our fellow, it may result to bad karma.
