What do you do with your old passport?

I keep mine as souvenirs.

This old thread had lots of ideas:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/what-should-you-do-with-your-old-out-dated-passport

I am not aware of any consensus view here on what to do with the old perforated passports. I do have all of my old ones since the very first in March 1971. All these old US passports are kept as souvenirs as pertinent travel evidence and realia/artifacts.

I was sitting near the Christmas tree when I read your question...

I grabbed a Christmas ribbon and strung it through the holes of one of my souvenir passports and hung it in the middle of the area of my tree that has ornaments acquired from my travels.

You can do anything you like with them. It has no value for anyone including an ID thief. Keep it as a souvenir. I have mine stored with my dog tags, my last military ID, an old college ID, etc. Maybe the kids will get a laugh from the box someday.

LIZinPA, thank you for that link. It was fun to read through and I may try the idea of framing them in some way. Thanks to others who replied as well.

I still have all of my passports going all the way back to the early 60's. Every now and then I look at them and flip through the pages to look at the immigration stamps, visa's, the old pictures. Most of my passports have had extra pages added so that they could handle all of the travel I was doing. It's interesting to look back and remember the first trip into the East Berlin or the New Territories. So many things have changed in my lifetime. I'm hanging on to them. My kids can throw them away when I "shuffle off this mortal coil."

As an aside, it is easier and cheaper to have extra pages added to your passport initially than to have them added later. With the current PP's being good for 10 years there is a really good chance you'll need the extra room so plan ahead. A visa will use a full page and some countries want to place the entry stamp on the opposing page. A couple trips to India and China can chew up a lot of space. Also, if you plan to travel in and out of China, Malaysia etc.. think about paying up for the multiple entry passes rather than going through the application process every time you go.

The reason they return the old passport "cancelled" (holes in it) is in case it has an visas in it that are still valid. When you enter the country for that visa, you can then show your new (valid) passport and the old one with the still valid visa in it.
It is not just the US, AFAIK all countries do this. They don't bother to check for visas, just return the old passport automatically.

As for what to do with it, that is up to you. You can throw it away if you don't need it. I have all my old ones in the same place I keep my birth certificate and other old documents. No need, but I have them all back to my first one as an 18-year-old.

This is why I keep them in my top drawer:

After my father died, I found my long-dead stepmother's passport deep in the dregs of a closet. She had traveled a lot in her younger days, so it was fun to look at the stamps and the old picture.

I sent it to my stepsister, who was thrilled to have this unexpected small, tangible, reminder of her mother's happy life.

Sometimes old passports are still important.

I know a US citizen who has Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) stamped/attached to an old US passport. ILR allows her to permanently live in the UK. So along with a current valid US passport, she also has to carry the old passport each time she re-enters the UK to prove she’s a permanent resident.

I’m far from a pack rat but I keep them along with old drivers licenses, my college ID card, and old business cards from previous jobs. I know we are moving into a stampless era for many countries so it’ll be a nice reminder. Regrettably, I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I’ve picked up on trips.

Yes, exactly...my old CA Dr Licenses, college ID, my USA and German youth hostel cards, all the old passports plus what no longer exists, all the "stuff" connected with the draft, ie, mandatory registration, the 2-S Deferment, the reclassification notice...all primary documentary evidence and artifacts.

I have all of my old passports. In Australia they also put holes in to invalidate them. However, on one occasion, when I did the renewal at the post office, the man serving me used a scissors to cut parts of the cover off, then gave it back to me. I still have it. I like keeping them as souvenirs. I admit I do not know if there is a correct procedure for disposing of them.

In the 70's we were newlyweds, hubby Air Force, and stationed in Okinawa, Japan. We were issued our first passports right before the transfer. We had a chance to travel all over the area, multiple times to some countries. After 4 years we were transferred back to the US and our passport expired. We noticed and got new ones, kept the old ones and we were glad. When my husband left the Air Force after 8 years and joined a Federal agency, the application was extremely long and detailed. One question: List every country outside the US that you have traveled to and the dates. Boy did those old passports come in handy. I still keep them.

I keep mine and from time to time look at the colorful visas and entry/exit passport control stamps to reminisce about a trip. I have them all going back to childhood.

In Italy we can surrender the old passport or keep it, after having it voided with stamps on the main pages and and all the free pages. I keep them and they are a nice memory. Where I could find a better souvenir of crossing the Berlin Wall, in the very year it was tore down, than visas on my passport?

Same as Lola. Thanks for reminding me. I need to renew mine right away.

I keep them and look at them with a BIG smile.

I look at mine with a big smile, too.

Except maybe for the one from the early 80's. The picture on it is so bad that the agents in Moscow almost wouldn't let me leave. I had to point to the scar on my chin and on the picture!

A few years after I spent a year backpacking around the world, I decided that instead of buying my young nephews inexpensive Christmas and birthday gifts that would quickly be discarded, I’d set up “travel accounts” for them. I mailed my sister (their mother) a letter to them (they were 5 and 7 at the time) explaining what I was doing and telling them that I hoped I could pass on my love of travel to them. I enclosed my recently expired passport, full of stamps (this was in the ‘90s). My sister said that when she read them my letter and gave them the passport, they squealed with joy and ran to get there globe, eagerly asking each other: Where are you going to go! Where do you want to go?!

Shelly, I love your idea!!!!!