Facing travel document, travel document that's incomplete (3-1-3)
I believe the answer is:
vis-a-vis
'facing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'travel document travel document that's incomplete' is the wordplay.
'travel document' becomes 'visa' (I've seen this before).
'travel document' becomes 'visa' (I've seen this before).
'that's incomplete' means to remove the last letter.
'visa' with its final letter taken off is 'vis'.
'visa'+'vis'='VIS-A-VIS'
(Other definitions for vis-a-vis that I've seen before include "With regard to" , "In relation to, as compared with" , "Facing; in relation to" , "Face-to-face" .)