It’s no surprise that you need to keep your passport in a safe place. But that also means protecting it from any outside damage. Water drops, slight tears, a missing page, even a hole punch can easily invalidate your passport.

Tempted to have a local gift shop stamp your passport on your next foreign trip as a souvenir? Don’t.

That also renders it invalid and the State Department determines that as tampering. Only valid border patrol stamps are accepted.