An expired passport can still be useful, so check whether you need yours for a visa, renewal, citizenship evidence, or travel records.
If you no longer need it and the issuing authority doesn’t require its return, use a suitable shredder or a secure service that accepts passports.
This guide covers US passports and visas. For another country’s documents, check its passport authority and the embassy or consulate that issued any visa inside.
Check These Details Before Disposal
Check Before You Destroy
Keep your passport secure while you work through these checks.
- Confirm you own the passport or are legally authorized to handle it.
- Check every visa. A visa can remain valid after the passport expires.
- Check whether your renewal process needs your most recent passport.
- Consider whether the passport may serve as citizenship evidence.
- Check whether an open immigration, residency, legal, tax, or travel-history matter needs its stamps or pages.
If any check is unclear, don’t destroy the passport. Keep it secure and ask the relevant authority.
Download the old passport checklist (PDF)
Keep a passport you still need, even after you’ve finished the checklist.
Keep a Passport That Contains a Valid Visa
The State Department says you can use a valid US visa in an expired passport with a new valid passport.
You can do this only if the visa isn’t canceled or revoked and both passports are from the same country and are the same type.
Don’t remove the visa from your old passport.
For a foreign visa in your old US passport, ask the issuing embassy or consulate whether you can still use it.
The State Department’s passport FAQ gives you the same advice after a US passport renewal.
Don’t cut, punch, or shred the passport until you have an answer.
Keep It as Citizenship or Travel Evidence
You may use an undamaged, full-validity US passport as primary citizenship evidence even after it expires.
That can help when you don’t have another citizenship document.
Your old passport may also support your travel history or preserve entry and exit records that are hard to replace.
Store any passport you keep in a secure, dry place with your other identity records.
Don’t post photos of your identity page or passport number online.
Even a passport you keep for sentimental reasons contains personal data, so protect it like a current identity document.
Renew Before You Destroy
If you qualify for US mail renewal, you must submit your most recent passport.
With online renewal, you follow a different process and keep your old passport.
Check the current State Department instructions for your situation instead of relying on an old timeline or processing estimate.
The State Department normally returns your old passport after mail renewal unless it’s damaged or intentionally altered.
Wait for your new passport and any separately returned documents before deciding what to keep.
How to Destroy a Passport You No Longer Need
Once you’ve confirmed you no longer need the passport, use a cross-cut shredder rated for its laminated and plastic parts or a secure service that accepts passports.
Don’t force a bound passport through an ordinary paper shredder.
If you can’t find a suitable service, ask the issuing passport authority how to return or destroy the document.
Don’t burn your passport.
Its laminated cover and security materials can create hazardous smoke, and open burning may be illegal where you live.
FTC guidance recommends shredding expired identification and documents containing personal information when you’re ready to dispose of them.
Keep the shredded pieces contained and follow your local trash rules.
Don’t assume shredded passport material is recyclable paper because it also contains laminates, adhesives, thread, and security features.
Lost or Stolen Is Different From Expired
If your valid passport is missing, report it through the issuing authority’s lost-or-stolen process.
Treat a missing passport as a loss or theft, not a disposal job.
For a US passport, you can report it to the State Department online, by mail, or in person.
For other sensitive papers, our guide to disposing of documents without a shredder covers alternatives, but identity documents may need a stricter service.