Drowned passports
 

OK, no lectures please.

This morning I brought a load of laundry down from our third floor bedrooms to the laundry which is adjacent to my den on the ground floor. I put our passports on top of the laundry, as I was starting to organize for our upcoming trip and wanted them at my desk. You can see where I'm going with this, right? Sure enough. I dumped the laundry including the passports into the filling washer. I immediately thought about it and fished them out, but they were already submerged. So, I've blotted them off, dried them out, and now they are very "wrinkly" including the covers which I always thought seemed like vinyl but must have a paper inside. Meanwhile it seems that although all the title page is fine, some of the stamps literally disappeared or look like they've been wiped off and are unreadable.

Is this a problem? We leave next week for New York where we'll be for a month, so I suppose I can go to the office in Brooklyn within two weeks of our departure for "emergency" replacements. I'd hesitate to send them off otherwise. Or am I worrying about something that is a non-issue?

You probably should worry. It doesn't sound like a non-issue to me. Better get them checked out in NYC just to be sure.
No lectures, just lots of sympathy!

no lectures but could we chuckle just a little? definitely falls under the "I can't believe I did that!" category.

Oh my gosh, that SO sounds like something I would do! Hope you get it all straightened out.

One of my favorite exchange student stories...

we had a French exchange student many years ago and it turns out he did not empty his pockets before putting his clothes in the laundry! One day, after doing the wash, I noticed what appeared to be a brown stick in the washer. Upon closer inspection, it was his passport all rolled up...and very clean! Everything seemed to be intact and he did manage to get out of the country!

French passports are indelible! (although I didn't think to look for any stamps on later pages.)

Can you still read the important information, i.e. Passport number, Issuing agency, expeiration date?, etc...? Is the picture clear? I hate to tell Neo, but it is irrelevant what we have to say. Take the passports immediately to the official passport agency near you and ask THEM. Tipycally there are standards and guidelines for passport physical conditions; they ought to be the ones consulted, it is their document.

sigh... I'm sorry Patrick for this stress!

(I washed Flyer's playoff tickets once...gone to mush they were)

Brother, you have my deepest sympathies.

I have "washed" 2 remotes, a cordless phone and a cell phone. Certainly more expensive than my passport but much more easliy replaced and much less valuable.

MvK

I would take them to that agency office and ask them.

I'm sure Jason Bourne's passport went through a lot worse than a pre-soak but someone may think you are a big-time terrorist/smuggler if you've washed away the stamps (weren't they almost unreadable anyway?)given the mentality of some of the officials one runs into.

Agree that you should get an expert's opinion, but I don't think it matters that the stamps have been washed off as many countries don't even stamp your passport anymore anyway.

I would think the most important thing is your information page and picture. If those are intact, then I think you are going to be OK.

NeoPatrick - This is not a non-issue. I can tell you right now that you will have to get them replaced. A couple of years ago when I went to have my passport renewed, it was a little warped ("mutilated" is how they define it) as it had been in my moneybelt and next to my body when I went to Egypt. Due to my sweating, it affected the passport booklet. If my memory serves me correct, I had to get my birth certificate, fill out some forms and then mail it off to either Houston or NJ along with my new passport photo. Yeah, it was a bit of hassle, but at least I got my old passport back with all my stamps!

Your wachining machine situation reminds me of what happened to my nephew. In 2005 he and I were off to Switzerland leaving out of JFK. The only problem was that the previous year he forgot to take his passport out of his jeans and when his mom (my sister) went to do the laundry, it got wet before she realised it. Thankfully the lady at the AA counter at JFK let him go with me on our trip. If we were asked about the condition of it, I was to just tell the person that after my nephew had gone through security, he had accidentally dropped it in the toilet! You can only imagine the reaction of the guy at passport control in Zurich when I told him that, but he actually got it right the first time when he said, "Went through the washing machine, eh?"

Ooops, almost forgot to mention that we had to go to the American embassy in Bern to get a temporary passport for him.

#-O Never a dull moment. Ironically I was just looking at passport expeditors this morning. I think you definitely need replacements.

Yes - it may well be a problem - since thre are some countries that want to see (via visas or stamps in the passport) what other countries you have been in. Having one that's unreadable might cause all sorts of questions/delays - if nothing more.

Don't feel too bad - I did that with my DH's old passport. Luckily, I only had to send it in to renew.

As others have said, I'd check it out with the passport office.

Good Luck!

My husband (for whatever reason) preferred to use his passport (I just use my drivers license) for ID when flying within the US. Over time, it became mangled from being in his pocket while sitting on flights. When we checked in for a flight, he was advised to have it replaced before his next international trip.

I have nothing insightful to add, except...

I love the fact that it is a passport that "drowned" vs. only "wet".

As if the people inside it are real... and truly were drowned in the washing machine.

Did they cry for help ? Did they send up an SOS flare ? Did they worry about the water getting higher ?

sorry... its been a long day. just the ramblings of a sleep-deprived mom.

Well, after a full day of drying out, there really seems to be less problem than I thought. Yes the covers are sort of wrinkly, and I think I'll try to iron them a bit. Or keep them pressed in a book for a while and I think they'll really straighten out. The information pages are totally intact -- not a sign that anything happened to them. And frankly, I'm not sure that the illegible status of many of the stamps can mean a thing. I had looked through my passport a year ago and had noted that about half of the stamps were un-readable anyway. Most of them look like they never had any ink in the stamp.

I'm not about to take them to Miami (a couple of hours each way and I'm sure total chaos there. I'll wait until I'm in New York, and apparently the best thing is to wait until two weeks before we go with an appointment. They say you can only do one in person within two weeks of departure there, so no point in going earlier and risk not getting it back. Right?

If it makes you feel any better....I washed the remote control last week (it still works!)and I have also washed my husband's cell phone (it did not survive.)

OMG, Patrick, this sounds dreadful but hopeful. I'm sure it's all you need, too, right before a big trip. Ugh!

On a lighter note, years ago my mother used to be the financial secretary of our church. She'd actually bring all the money home in a big bank bag.

Anyway, her "hiding place" was the washing machine that was in the kitchen.

And yup, you guessed it! One time she forgot the money bag was in there, and she did a complete wash. When taking the clothes out, she saw the bag of money.

When I got home from school that day, the entire living room floor was filled with dollar bills drying out. Don't know what happened to the checks. All I remember is all those bills.

Good luck!

NeoPatrick,

I do feel for you. Unfortunately, Homeland Security (sic) is sufficiently vague about this event.

The British version, which is at least to the point, said that it's not a problem, except to make sure your carrier(s) will accept the passport.

You might check with your carrier before you believe in the "they say" saying.

I'm leaving for Europe in 2 1/2 weeks, and just rechecked my tickets and passports this morning, just as you've done.

Good luck!

Well, I've heard of money laundering operations, but for the church?? Shame.
:D

Patrick, when I was in high school my grandmother was washing sheets for my aunt. My aunt was a little senile and she had wrapped an entire carton of cigarettes into the dirty sheets. Of course, auntie forgot where her cigs were when she gave the dirty sheets to my grandmother to wash. My grandmother didn't see the carton of cigs in the sheets so she threw it all into the washer. Later my grandmother was horrified to find little pieces of tobacco all over the sheets and stuck in the washer. My poor granny spent countless hours hunched over her washer, picking tobacco out of every little hole. She was mad about this for at least a week. :-(

Patrick:

I would make sure when you iron them there is a layer of cloth between the passport and the iron (just in case you hadn't thought of that) - wouldn't want to add scorch marks to the mix.

And I think I'd call the Passport Office and ask.I doubt the lack of clarity of stamps is going to be an issue, but these days who knows?

If it makes you feel any better, I once flushed a cell phone down a toilet. If you're a female, don't ever keep anything valuable in your back pocket ;)

If I were you, I'd get a new passport.

ok - i admit it - i also washed my passport years back -- and continued on many more trips with no problem..(sentimental reasons kept me from replacing it.. sounds to have been in similar condition to yours. However, this was BEFORE 9/11 - so not sure how much things have changed in regards to suspicious-looking "drowned" passports..

The problem is that the Passport Office might say it's OK, but it's the people at your arrival airport who have to be okay with it.

Coming back from Cologne to Newark we were sent for an extra inspection (no doubt the France issue). While we were waiting, my daughter observed the trials of a 10-year-old boy whose passport had fallen apart (but somehow I missed this drama, as I was too worried about our connecting flight). I'm not sure how that was resolved. I think he was a foreign national.