This answer contains just one tip in addition to what’s in the other answers:
I have heard of a particular kind of scam you should be wary of.
People steal your identity, contact your family pretending to be you or to be somebody looking after you. They tell your family a story about something terrible that happened to you and you need money to be helped, brought home, etc.
Since they have stolen part of your passport there’s a chance of some kind of identify theft.
Please contact your family if you have not already, let them know there’s a chance somebody might be stealing your identity. Tell them where you are, what your actual condition is, and what your upcoming plans are. Try to give them a way to contact you that should not be known by the person who had access to your passport.
Warn them to be suspicious of anybody they might hear from either pretending to be you, or bearing bad news about you.
From the fact the you do not identify the country of the passport (and perhaps the fact that you don’t travel often :)), I will assume here that the passport in question is a U.S. passport.
The other answers contains some useful and some useless information. I hope that the following is entirely useful AND may be urgent:
Putting these three things together:
If she wants to be a good citizen and tell the US gov’t about the crime —
if she wants to help protect yourself in case someone is about to steal your identity —
REPORT the incident immediately;
and if she ever wants to travel outside the US again
she needs to report the incident and apply for a new passport, using the procedure which is reserved for people whose most recent U.S. passport has been mutilated, altered, or damaged.
I quote from http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/renew.html
“If your most recent U.S. passport has been mutilated, altered, or damaged, you cannot apply by mail – you must Apply in Person.”
See the following web page for how to do this:
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/where-to-apply.html
Looks like you have been victim of fraud/identity theft.
You should contact your government immediately. Although not all of the passport is gone, you might want to look at instructions for people who have had their whole passport stolen to get an idea of who to contact. If you’ve lost a document and don’t know where it is, you cannot be sure that it has not been stolen and abused.
So, you have two problems right now:
As for the missing stamp, usually countries are more concerned with entry/exit through their own border, not other countries – but a government official, for instance a consulate worker reviewing a visa application (especially one from St. Lucia), may suspect that you have overstayed your visa in that country since there is no proof of exit (though you can easily explain that by showing the US entry stamp). You could probably get away with it unless you actually go to St. Lucia (which may be how your mother was even allowed to enter the US with an invalid passport), but it’s best to have an official document explaining why you have an entry stamp but no exit stamp (because customs officers will want to know why). And if you do “get away with it” because one officer let it slide, another one could later find out and get you into trouble.
In the end, you definitely must notify the appropriate branch of your government that a part of the passport is missing and possibly stolen (and carefully document the procedure so that you have proof!). They will probably require you to obtain a replacement. It is also advisable to notify other important entities, such as banks (where identity theft may cause you great harm) that this has occurred.
I’d ask if she had any blank cheques (checks) with her. A common trick is to remove a cheque or two from the middle of a book so it isn’t immediately noticed. With a perfect sample of her signature, she could be set up to lose thousands of dollars from her chequing account.
This was no accident. On the positive side, the motives are more likely those of common criminals than of terrorists.
The passport has been SIGNIFICANTLY damaged. Normal wear and tear is generally acceptable, but missing pages or vital data or stamps missing – that’s considered significant, and you’ll need to get it replaced.
As a source, from the official FAQ page of the US Department of State and Travel:
If your passport has been significantly damaged, especially the book
cover or the page displaying your personal data and photo, you will
need to apply for a new passport. Conditions that may constitute
damage requiring you to replace your passport include water damage, a
significant tear, unofficial markings on the data page, missing visa
pages (torn out), a hole punch, or other injuries.Normal wear of a U.S. passport is expected and likely does not
constitute “damage.” For instance normal wear includes the bend of a
passport after being carried in your back pocket or fanning of the
visa pages after extensive opening and closing.If you need to replace your damaged passport, you will need to submit
the following in person (See Where to Apply):The damaged passport; Form DS-11; and All documents required by Form
DS-11, including citizenship documentation (i.e., birth certificate).
Should you be worried, or not? Was it intentional or not? Possibly. But without the photo page, there’s not much anyone can do with it. Perhaps someone was trying to copy it, maybe someone slipped while thumbing through it – it’s speculation really. So worried about the passport – yes, get it replaced. Worried about security / fraud – well there’s not much you can do, aside from reporting it to the DST when applying for the replacement, as suggested on some of the embassy sites.
As her passport has been “modified” (or damaged) it is no longer valid, and thus needs to be replaced if she is traveling internationally again. Many countries will not grant you entry if a page has been removed as they believe it may be an attempt to hide previous stamps. Further, a US passport is not valid if it is not signed, so as the signature page has been removed it’s certainly not valid.
As far as why the page was removed, this is not something I’ve ever heard of happening before. I suspect any attempts to guess what happened would be nothing more than speculation.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘