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The outer cover of my passport has just come off. This happened when I was travelling in from Abu Dhabi on my way back from San Francisco. Everything is intact in the passport. While getting inward, the person in the immigration counter has told me that " you have to get the passport reissued, won't be able to travel with this".

As a matter of fact one can stick the cover properly. Is it advisable? If not, when one goes for the affidavit as as per annexure L, the FIR is necessary from the police station ? I have not lost anything.

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    Where are you? What passport are you holding? But yes, in general, this is absolutely true, damaged passports can't be used and if you tape it together there's still a very good chance won't be accepted. Finally, obviously, if you still hold your passport then you don't need a police report (but prepare to be admonished for damaging your passport and in repeated cases prepare for trouble getting a new passport). – chx Feb 28 '16 at 2:14
  • I am curious how the cover came off? – Burhan Khalid Feb 29 '16 at 4:27
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As a general rule of thumb for travel, damaged passports should be replaced. And sooner is better than later.

Actual rules vary from country to country, but a damaged passport can lead to delays at immigration or even outright denials.

And with your particular damage, when you consider that the chip is in the cover and your photo details are inside, having a cover that has been reattached adds suspicion if it contains the original chip issued to you.

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Any breakage or damage of your passport could be an issue, and should trigger replacement. Except for countries where 20 USD tucked in to the passport takes cares of those problems.

I once had a passport where the glue for the first cover page was not properly laminated during the production process. Didn't have an issue traveling with it for years. The one day a ambitions immigration officer in Indonesia pointed out the defect. Luckily, a "on-the-spot fee" sorted this issue. But it just goes to show that if you fly half way around the world, you don't want to risk failing immigration.

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