US Passport. . . In a Washing Machine! HELP!

My dad and mom are here visiting.

They have new US passports (got them in March).

My dad's just went through the washing machine!

Any idea if it's just a no-go and he needs to go straight to the Consulate before returning home?

It looks okay, just crinkled.

i would say as long as the relevant pages are fine, i wouldn't worry. They want to be able to run it by the bar code thing usually.

Do US passports now contain a chip, like newly-issued British passports?

If so it might be best to phone the Consulate and see what they say. No real way for you to check whether a chip has been damaged, and damaged not just by water wetness by also by the temperature of the water!

My US Passport that I got in early 2007 does have chip.

It should be fine.  I had a (U.S.) client last year whose passport had fallen into some river and stayed there for hours before it was found.  It looked so ragged, but he received all the visas he needed for his trip.

The problem is that damage is a realtive term.  It is up to the ICE agent to figure out if it is damaged.  If it is relatively know (and has the little "eye" on the passport) then it has the RFID which in theory should still be working.  Either way, since he is returning to the States, is probablly middle aged if not older and travelling with his wife, the ICE officer may verify that the passport is accurate and not modified and then allow them through, but he may suggest that he get a replacement depending on how damaged the passport is.

I'll have a better look at it today and phone the Consulate.

I'd imagine this is a pretty common scenario, sadly.