A passport is a credential, not just a booklet
A passport links a person’s identity to permission to travel across borders. When its holder dies, that link should no longer be usable as a current travel credential. Canceling the document gives officials a way to mark it as invalid, rather than leaving a genuine government-issued booklet that could appear usable to someone else.
Physical damage makes the status visible
Cutting off corners or punching holes through visa pages leaves an obvious sign that the passport has been withdrawn. That matters because border checks often begin with the document in an officer’s hands: a visibly altered passport can be recognized as canceled instead of mistaken for an intact one. Marking the visa pages can also help keep the booklet from being presented as though its travel permissions were still usable.
This is a practical safeguard, not a guarantee against identity fraud. A canceled passport may still contain personal information, and physical damage cannot erase that data. But it reduces the chance that the document itself will pass as a valid passport—a small, visible change that helps keep a deceased person’s identity from being used to travel.
