INZ damaged my passport

[parpalhou]

Very strange thing - I just received my passport back from INZ and the corners have been clipped off. Someone tried to repair the front and back covers with scotch tape so I know it wasn't the return courier that damaged it. I called INZ and they suggested that it must have been received like that, but it looks to me like someone either cut open the envelope with scissors and nicked the passport or pulled it violently out of a closed drawer or from under something heavy. I can't really imagine that the postal service would have tried to fix anything with scotch tape, but the woman on the phone said that the immigration officer may have just seen it was damaged and taped it up. She claimed that had the packaging been damaged on arrival they would have contacted me, and no one did. I'm not really sure what I can do about this. I may need to have it replaced but that is no easy task as I don't live in my country of citizenship, and I would not like to have to pay to have the visa moved in addition to the passport fees I will need to pay. Should I write a letter of complaint of some sort? My CO just went on leave for 2 weeks so I won't be hearing from her I suppose. I'm assuming that if she placed the visa, she assumes I'll be able to get into NZ with this passport, but I'm concerned about going through other countries first.

[kiwieagle]

How strange! I find it a bit worrisome that instead of asking the people who directly dealt with the passport, the person you spoke to suggested it "must" have been received like that and then tried to come up with some conjecture about what could have happened. I don't understand why they would make any conjecture and instead say, "We'll look into it." It seems really strange that they would put a visa in a damaged passport unless they damaged the passport. Weird.

[Twunky]

I had always thought they clip the corners on a passport when it becomes invalid? (Out of date for example)

I would certainly pursue further with INZ and possibly contact your own Embassy regarding travelling on a passport that has been damaged in this way.

[kiwieagle]

I had always thought they clip the corners on a passport when it becomes invalid? (Out of date for example)

I would certainly pursue further with INZ and possibly contact your own Embassy regarding travelling on a passport that has been damaged in this way.

I thought that too. My husband's expired NZ passport is filed away, so I can't check, but I remember that it came back with the corners clipped. This story made me immediately think they did the wrong thing. The USA puts holes in their expired passports.