12172003

I sent in my application for a passport card including my passport book, 2 photos, etc. I just received my passport book back. It has one photo stapled into it. I presume it is ok to remove it along with the staple but any reason why not to? IIRC, staple holes with nothing attached apparently attract attention. Is this correct?

thanks in advance.

GenevaFlyer

Don't know about US passports, but US Immigration is constantly stapling my departure record to my passport, so it has plenty of holes. Never had any questions about it.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

u2fan

Staple holes on a drivers license attract attention: I have never heard this about passports.

u2fan

Allow me to add to my previous post about a license with staple holes attracting attention.

Years ago (things may be different now), I knew a bunch of cops and 2 in particular were kind of sleazebags. Then, if they ticketed a driver and the driver did not have some kind of bond guarantee or insurance which guaranteed the drivers appearance in court or payment of the fine, the cops wrote the ticket, gave the driver 1 copy and stapled the origional copy to the drivers license which they turned in.

If they did not like the driver, they put extra staple holes in the license, so when the driver got his license back, if he got stopped again, the next cop would think he was dealing with a real loser who got a bunch of tickets, had poor insurance...

That is why I say staple holes in a drivers license attract attention. (Well,, this may be a moot point because we all know how much things have changed here!)

12172003

Ok, never mind. I'll just take the picture they stapled to the passport out. No worries. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing any wrong. BTW, I thought the staple holes had to do with visas that were stapled in rather than stamped such as Cuba, etc. Guess I was remembered incorrectly. Better I ask beforehand though. Thanks again.

oklAAhoma

Interesting story about the licenses and staples. I've never seen that done, but can see how several staple holes in a drivers license would attract attention. I'm sure glad they didn't use that system where I lived when I was younger.

Edited to add:

I agree that many things have changed, but unless the meaning of "mute" is one of those things, I believe you meant to say "moot point".

alex0683de

A number of countries around the world require visiting foreigners to fill out landing cards for immigration, and will give you a portion of that landing card to keep in your passport until departure. Some staple this departure slip to your passport, some don't. Off the top of my head I can think of Japan and the USA who staple, and Singapore who does not. Staple holes in passport pages are fairly routine and not necessarily indicative of anything dodgy, so should not really be a big deal.

oklAAhoma

Agreed. I even have a staple still lodged in one of my pages, but I can't remember which country I was in when it was put there.

tentseller

Cuba does not staple their entry visa nor stamp visitor's passport, it is just a slip that you are reminded not to lose. It make visiting them "invisible" as far as your passport is concern.

ajax

I've got loads of staple holes in my UK passport, which is rather funny since the instructions on the inside specifically say "Do not perforate." Ah well.

12172003

Never been there but was *attempting* to avoid picking out a country in the middle east that staples them. So just ignore me. ;-) And now that I think about it, I have my $100 USD 'thingy' from Chile that is stapled into it to. (again) never mind, just wanted to be sure before I do something irreversible.

Silver Fox

Staple holes everywhere in my passport. And some bloody big holes in some cases where my staple removing skills were found wanting.

And on the subject of staples when I was living in the USA (CA) and getting the tags for my truck at AAA, I said don't bother stapling the little plastic bag with them in to the registration document as I will only have to take it off - they said that they are required to by DMV (or was it the police? I forget now) and the little holes left are apparently a "secret signal" to "peace officers" that the tags were legally obtained. No idea if it is true but that is what they said at the time.

kwbchang

I also applied for a new passport card with my passport book in April 2010. I got my passport book back wiith my new passport card in May. The passport book that I got back has one of my photo stapled on it, In addition two hole were punched on the front page. I did not think there will be a problem because I have the new passport card and this passport book with two holes on the front page. I was denied travel to Auckland NZ today, due to the fact my passport book has two holes punched in the front page. This book is issued on Nov 2007 and it will expired on Nov 2017. The agent is very kind to rebook me on the same flight on Monday and asked me to go to US passport office in San Francisco to get a new passport book. I hope I will be able to get the new passport book on Monday and go to NZ for my shorten vacation.

Mabuk dan gila

Staples are common and innocuous but holes punched in the front page of a passport is a canceled passport. No if's ands or but's about it. It is not valid for travel. Sounds like yet another shining examples of the utter incompetence of the State Department passport offices. They issued your passport card and canceled your book passport since I guess they figured you wouldn't be needing a book passport anymore now that you have a card. Just that little extra effort to let you know they are earning the MASSIVE fee increases that just went through. IDIOTS.

jyflyer

Having entered and exited US many times w/ a Visa and getting the I-94 card stapled and removed continuously.. my passport looks like it has been through a war