Guidance

Faulty passports: caseworker guidance

Tells HM Passport Office staff how to deal with faulty passports.

• From: HM Passport Office
• Published: 12 May 2025
• Last updated: 13 August 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 13 August 2026

     This guidance has been updated to tell examiners to send the customer a damaged passport letter using Comms builder (this template has replaced previous letters 115 and 116) and to tell counter examiners they must check if the customer has any valid or expired visas in their passport (and take a photocopy of these if the customer would like to keep them), before continuing with an application to replace a faulty passport.

  2. 25 February 2026

     Updated guidance to version 18.

  3. 17 December 2025

     Updated guidance to to tell the Customer Service Management Team (CSMT) the new process for uploading documents onto DAP (Digital Application Processing) and to tell examiners to add observation OBTP when issuing a replacement passport.

  4. 13 October 2025

     Updated the faulty passports caseworker guidance, a full list of changes can be found in the guide.

  5. 12 May 2025

     First published.

Documents

Faulty passports (accessible)

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Details

This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff what a faulty passport is and how we deal with them.