To dispose of an old passport safely, first check it for any visas that are still valid, then either submit it with your next renewal application so the State Department cancels it, or destroy the data page, the visa pages, and the chip embedded in the cover yourself. Never toss a passport intact into the household trash. Even an expired one carries your full name, date and place of birth, passport number, signature, and a high-quality photograph, which is more than enough for someone to build a fraudulent identity around.
Check for Valid Visas Before You Destroy Anything
Flip through the passport first. A foreign visa does not expire just because the passport holding it does. The State Department confirms that a valid visa in an expired passport is still usable, as long as you carry both the old and new passports together when you travel.1U.S. Department of State. Frequently Asked Questions About Passport Services Shredding a passport with a live visa inside means reapplying from scratch, which can cost hundreds of dollars and take weeks. If you find one, set the passport aside in a secure spot and leave the rest of this article for later.
Let the State Department Cancel It During Renewal
The easiest disposal method is the one built into the renewal process. Whether you renew by mail or in person, you have to include your most recent passport with the application. If it’s missing, processing pauses until you send it in.2U.S. Department of State. Renew Your Passport by Mail
Once the State Department has it, the passport is canceled physically, usually by hole-punching or clipping a corner, and mailed back to you separately. It can arrive up to four weeks after your new passport.2U.S. Department of State. Renew Your Passport by Mail At that point it’s no longer usable for travel, but the biographical information printed inside is still readable. You can keep it or destroy it, and the steps below apply either way.
Destroying an Old Passport at Home
Federal law makes it a crime to mutilate a passport only when done “with intent that the same may be used,” meaning the statute targets fraud, not security-minded destruction of your own expired document.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 1543 – Forgery or False Use of Passport Shredding an expired or already-canceled passport is not illegal.
Use a Cross-Cut Shredder
A cross-cut shredder reduces documents to confetti that is nearly impossible to reassemble. The data page is thicker than ordinary paper and may contain a polycarbonate layer, so check that your shredder is rated for credit cards or CDs before feeding it in. Run the data page, the photo page, and any visa pages through one at a time to avoid jams.
Cut It Up By Hand
Strong scissors also work. Target the photograph, the passport number, the machine-readable zone along the bottom of the data page, and every visa stamp. Cut into small, irregular pieces rather than tidy strips, and split the pieces across separate trash bags or collection days so they can’t easily be gathered back together.
Disable the Chip in the Cover
U.S. passports issued since 2007 have an electronic chip embedded in the cover that stores a digital copy of the data page and photo.4U.S. Department of State. Department of State Begins Issuing Electronic Passports to the Public Shredding the pages alone leaves that chip intact and wirelessly readable inside the cover you threw away. A firm strike with a hammer will crack it. Skip the microwave, since the antenna can spark and scorch the passport, and skip the washing machine, which is unlikely to damage the chip at all. Once the chip is disabled, cut the cover material into pieces along with the shredded pages.
Reasons You Might Want to Keep It Instead
Destruction isn’t the only option. An expired U.S. passport still functions as proof of citizenship for some government programs. Federal Medicaid regulations, for instance, require agencies to accept a U.S. passport as evidence of citizenship “without regard to any expiration date as long as such passport or Card was issued without limitation.”5eCFR. 42 CFR 435.407 – Types of Acceptable Documentary Evidence of Citizenship If you ever need to prove citizenship and can’t quickly find your birth certificate or naturalization papers, an old passport in the filing cabinet can save you a trip to a records office.
Old passports also hold a permanent record of your travel: entry and exit stamps, visas, transit markings. Some people keep them for sentimental reasons, others because certain countries look at prior travel history when reviewing visa applications.
If you decide to keep one, store it the way you would a Social Security card. A locked safe or fireproof document box works. The personal data inside is just as exploitable now as the day the passport was issued.
Disposal Mistakes to Avoid
A few missteps come up again and again:
- Throwing an expired passport into the household trash intact. Dumpster diving takes no skill, and a passport hands over a photo, signature, and government-issued number in one package.
- Burning it indoors. The polycarbonate data page and the chip-embedded cover can release toxic fumes. If you want to burn one, do it outdoors in a fire-safe container and make sure nothing legible survives.
- Destroying a passport that still contains a valid foreign visa without first contacting the issuing embassy or consulate.
- Destroying a valid, unexpired passport you still plan to use. Wait until the State Department has canceled it during renewal, or until it has expired on its own, before applying the home-destruction steps.
If the Passport Is Lost or Stolen Rather Than Disposed Of
A missing passport is a different problem and needs immediate action, not disposal planning. The State Department instructs you to report a valid lost or stolen passport right away, at which point it is permanently canceled and cannot be used for travel even if it turns up later. Reports can be filed online through Form DS-64, by mail, or in person when you apply for a replacement. Online reporting cancels the passport within one business day.6U.S. Department of State. Report Your Passport Lost or Stolen
After reporting, protect your credit. The FTC recommends pulling your free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com, placing a credit freeze with each of the three major bureaus, and setting up a free one-year fraud alert.7Federal Trade Commission: IdentityTheft.gov. What To Do if Your Information Was Lost or Stolen, or Part of a Data Breach A credit freeze is free and blocks new accounts from being opened in your name until you lift it. These steps also make sense if you realize an expired passport you thought was safely stored has gone missing.