A friend who was born in the UK but now has Australian citizenship just went to Australia from Thailand.  The immigration officer in Australia said his passport was "Not in good condition" and confiscated it.  Now he has a larger problem because he needs his citizenship papers to apply for a new passport and those documents are at his home in Thailand.

He claims his passport,  though a bit dog-eared, had passed with no problem many times in the last 3 years so maybe they are becoming stricter, or perhaps he just got the wrong IO on the wrong day.

Just a heads up.  If your passport is in questionable condition, and you plan a trip to Australia, maybe better to renew it here before you go.

Something odd about the OP. To obtain new passport only need to quote details of old passport. You would assume if passport held, friend would be given some form of official receipt to present at time of applying for replacement. 

 

https://www.passports.gov.au/passportsexplained/pages/quickadultrenewalguide.aspx

Yes something wrong as they don't take your passport

 

Been in this situation myself

 

I'm sure arriving into Auss went the the desks (passing through Immigration ) & they asked do I use my passport often (YES ). Then the officer told me to see the men behind him as I walked through & was told my Photo page was starting to tear at the binding (total allowance was 1cm from either end )

I asked if I could put tape on it & the answer was NO that would be damaging the Passport. So they advised me to get a replacement & gave me  a Letter of First Notice & was able to keep Passport

 

1 hour ago, BEVUP said:

Yes something wrong as they don't take your passport

 

Been in this situation myself

 

I'm sure arriving into Auss went the the desks (passing through Immigration ) & they asked do I use my passport often (YES ). Then the officer told me to see the men behind him as I walked through & was told my Photo page was starting to tear at the binding (total allowance was 1cm from either end )

I asked if I could put tape on it & the answer was NO that would be damaging the Passport. So they advised me to get a replacement & gave me  a Letter of First Notice & was able to keep Passport

 

Immigration can and do seize passports. They do it on behalf of DFAT.

 

Depends on the damage of course. And as simple1 alluded to, the

passport holder receives a letter advising why and when it was seized which

he then has to provide when applying for a new one.