Correct a Mistake Printed on Your Passport

Two kinds of error qualify. A data error is a detail that was recorded incorrectly: a misspelled first, middle, or last name, a wrong date of birth, an incorrect place of birth, or the wrong sex marker. A printing error is a defect in the passport itself, such as information missing from the data page, discoloration, or text printed crooked. In both cases the error existed when the passport was issued. The passport must be in your possession, undamaged apart from the defect itself, and never reported lost or stolen. A passport that is damaged cannot be corrected and is replaced instead, and a name that changed after issue is not an error at all.

For a data error, you provide the record the passport should have matched. A certified birth certificate shows the correct spelling of a name, the date of birth, the place of birth, and the sex marker; a Consular Report of Birth Abroad or certificate of naturalization or citizenship serves the same purpose for someone born abroad; and a certified marriage certificate shows a married name that was misspelled. For a printing defect, the defect speaks for itself and is simply described on the application. The current passport is included with the application and returned to you afterward, and a new color photo taken within the last six months is required even though only the printed detail is changing.

The timing of the report decides how long the corrected passport is valid. When the error is reported within one year of the issue date printed in the passport, the corrected passport is issued with full validity: ten years for an adult, five for a child under 16, counted from the new issue date. When it is reported after that first year, the corrected passport is valid only until the expiration date of the original one, so a passport corrected in its fourth year expires on the same day the uncorrected passport would have. The corrected passport is a new document with its own number, and records that hold the old number should be updated when it arrives.

You identify the detail that is wrong, enter it exactly as the passport shows it, and then enter the correct information as it appears on your supporting record. Our team prechecks the answers for completeness and consistency, in particular that the corrected detail matches the record you have named and that the issue date supports the validity you can expect. Once your application has been processed, your completed documents and instructions for the remaining steps are available in your account. If your answers show that the detail changed after issue rather than being printed wrong, our questions direct you to the name change situation, where the certified marriage certificate, divorce decree, or court order is the evidence instead.