Passport

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A passport is a formal identity document or certification issued by a national government that identifies the holder as a national of a particular state, and requests permission, in the name of the sovereign or government of the issuing country, for the bearer to be permitted to enter and pass through other countries. Passports are connected with the right of legal protection abroad and the right to enter one's country of nationality. Passports usually contain the holder's photograph, signature, date of birth, nationality, and sometimes other means of individual identification. Many countries are in the process of developing biometric properties for their passports in order to further confirm that the person presenting the passport is the legitimate holder.

One of the earliest references to passports was made in about 450 B.C. Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes of ancient Persia, asked permission to travel to Judah. The King agreed and gave Nehemiah a letter "to the governors of the province beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he travelled through their lands

The term 'passport' most probably originates not from sea ports, but from medieval documents required to pass through the gate ('porte') of city walls. (The word is thus to be connected ultimately with Latin porta, gate, and not Latin portus, port/harbor.) In medieval Europe such documents could be issued to any traveller by local authorities and generally contained a list of towns and cities through which the holder was permitted to pass. This system continued in France, for example, until the 1860s. During this time passports were often not required for travel to seaports, which were considered open trading points, but were required to travel from them to inland cities. Early passports often, but not always, contained a physical description of the holder, with photographs being added only in the early decades of the 20th century.

Following the world wars, the League of Nations (International Conference on Passports, Customs Formalities and Through Tickets, 1920), and later the United Nations and the ICAO, issued standardisation guidelines on the layout and features of passports. These guidelines have largely shaped the modern passport.

In recent years there has been a movement to introduce biometric information to passports to improve identity security. It is at present questionable whether such technology is sufficiently developed and robust for this task. The U.S., for example, has twice delayed the introduction of this technology due to poor reliability results.

Most citizens are issued with ordinary passports for regular travel.

Diplomatic personnel are issued diplomatic passports which identify them as diplomatic representatives of their home country. Although they may then enjoy certain privileges in the country they are performing their duties in (including diplomatic immunity after the host country grants accreditation to the passport holder as a member of a diplomatic mission), this is a consequence of their position rather than the possession of a Diplomatic Passport.

Service passports are issued to the technical and administrative personnel of diplomatic missions such as embassies and consulates. These personnel have fewer immunities and privileges than diplomatic personnel. The details are laid out in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Some countries issue official passports to some of their civil servants, for travel on official purposes although some countries will use an Official passport interchangagbly with a Service passport. Depending on country's bilateral agreements, in some cases bearers of official passports may require a visa, whereas bearers of normal passports would not, and in other cases official passport holders may be granted visa-free entry, while normal passport holders are required to get a visa.

A group passport may be issued, for example, for a school trip. All children on the trip would be covered by the group passport for the duration of the trip.

A lookalike passport may be issued by countries with complex nationality laws. In the United Kingdom, as a result of its colonial heritage, and domestic constitution has developed different classes of citizenship. Some passports are simply travel documents which offer no right of abode, while others indicate full right of residence. Meanwhile, not all U.K. citizens are automatically European Union citizens, and are issued with passports which carry no EU endorsements.

Multiple passport regimes can operate in one country. The main example of this is China, where the One country, two systems model has resulted in Hong Kong and Macao having their own passports and immigration regulations. Numbers of countries and territories offering visa-free entries to these three type of passports vary.

Internal passports have been issued by some countries, as a means of controlling the movement of the population. Examples include the Soviet internal passport system and the hukou residency registration system used in the People's Republic of China.

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Technical characteristics
Passports have a standardised format. They begin with a cover identifying the issuing country, then have a title page also naming the country. This is usually followed by pages giving information about the bearer and the issuing authority, (although some European Union member state passports provide this information on the inside back cover of the document). Then, a number of blank pages are given for foreign countries to affix visas, or stamp the passport on entrance or exit. Passports are provided with a serial number by the issuing authority.

Passports used to carry information (family name, given names, date of birth, place of birth, etc.) only in textual form. In recent years, however, passports issued by many countries have become more complex.

Machine-readable passports have a world-wide standardised by the ICAO presentation [1], bearing a zone where some of the information otherwise written in textual form is written as strings of alphanumeric characters, printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition – that is, reading by a machine. This enables border controllers and other law enforcement agents to process such passports quickly, without having to input the information manually into a computer – for instance, in order to check in a database if the passport was not stolen, if the holder of the passport is not a criminal, or to record the movement of foreigners.

Biometric passports with RFID chips will carry supplemental information about the bearer, in a digitised form. These passports have already been introduced in the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Europe. These new passports were primarily introduced to prevent identity fraud. When technology improves, the embedded chips may also allow rapid clearance through immigration controls with quicker confirmation of identity. Facial Maps are popular for use in Biometric passports as the data (The distances between key facial features) can be gathered from the holder's passport photo without any other information.

In 1920 the International Conference on Passports, Customs Formalities and Through Tickets mandated that passports be issued in French and at least one other language, though many countries, particularly in Asia, now issue passports in English and the language of the issuing country.

Belgium allows its citizens to choose which of its three official languages (Dutch, French, or German) should appear first in the individual's passport.
The face page of the Hungarian passports ("Útlevél" in Hungarian, lit. "Roadletter") is in Hungarian only, though on the inside there is a second, Hungarian-English bilingual page citing "Passport" also. The personal information page offers trilingual Hungarian, English and French explanation for the details. An additional page including the explanations in English, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic has been added in recent years.
Passports issued by European Union member states bear all of the official languages of the European Union.
United States passports, once issued in English and French only, are now issued in English, French, and Spanish since the second Clinton administration, due to the fact that they are used in Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico.
Soviet passports were only printed in Russian and French, even though the USSR was a country of many languages.

The member states of the European Union are perhaps the best-known countries to have a common format for their passports. European Union (EU) passports have standardised layouts and designs, although the photo page can be at the front or in the back of the booklet and small differences in design indicate which member state is the issuer. Ordinary EU passports are burgundy-red, with the words "European Union" written in the national language or languages (e.g. Dutch, French, Finnish, Maltese) on the front, below which is the official name of the country, the national seal, and the word for "passport", in the respective language(s), can be found at the bottom. Malta was the first country of the new EU states from Central Europe and the Mediterranean to issue EU passports. Estonia and Slovakia began issuing EU passports in 2005. Others such as Latvia and Cyprus are likely to follow in the coming years.

In Central America, the members of the CA-4 Treaty (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have adopted a common design passport also called the Central American Passport. Although the design has been in use by Nicaragua and El Salvador since the mid-1990's, it will be the norm for the CA-4 area effective January 2006. The main features are its navy blue cover with the words "América Central" and a map of Central America with the territory of the issuing country highlighted in gold. This effectively replaces the national seals of the different countries with one single element, the map. At the bottom of the cover, the name of the issuing country and the passport type. As of 2006, the Nicaraguan passport (which will be used as the model for the other three countries) is issued in Spanish, French and English. It also has 89 security features, including bidimensional barcodes, holograms and watermarks, ranking it as one of the most secure passport models in the world.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) recently began issuing passports to a common design, featuring CARICOM's symbol along with the national seal and official name of the member state in its official languages (i.e. English, French, Dutch). The first member state to issue CARICOM passports is Suriname, to be followed by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda and other countries.

The declaration adopted in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations signalled an intent to establish a common passport design, but this appears to be a long way away. Already, some member states of regional sub-groupings such as Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations issue passports that bear their official name and seal along with the name of their regional grouping. Examples include Paraguay and Ecuador. Member states of the Andean Community of Nations have agreed to phase in new Andean passports bearing the official name of the regional body in Spanish by January 2005, although previously issued national passports will be valid until their expiry date.

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Government restrictions and special cases
Although most countries recognise the passports of most other countries, there are a number of exceptions. Generally these exceptions are due to circumstances where one country does not recognise another territory's administration as a sovereign state. Some countries also decline to accept passports that do not afford the bearer the right to live in the issuing country.

Most countries make it a policy not to accept passports issued by authorities they do not recognise as states. The usual one-off exceptions are persons involved in negotiation between authorities (analogous to diplomatic talks) and those offering humanitarian relief. Standing exceptions include passports issued by the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions of China (See below). In Brazil, citizens of such countries must apply for a Brazilian laissez-passer, a type of travel document usually allowing only a single entry into the issuing country.

In most countries, the passport (sometimes including counterfeit ones) is state property which may be withdrawn at any time. In some countries the executive authorities may declare a passport void, although such cases may be subject to judicial review; judicial decision may be needed for other countries. For instance, typically, a person on bail must temporarily surrender his passport while awaiting trial if he poses a flight risk.

Many countries issue only one passport per person. Once the passport is expired, in order to get a new passport a person is required to surrender the expired passport, or have a passport office place holes through the cover, negating the effect of the expired passport (used in the United States). A growing number of countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, are withholding the restriction, allowing their citizens to hold more than one passport per person. It may be useful for a person who travels frequently to many countries with tough visa restrictions. In the time when one passport is under visa issue processing in a foreign consulate the person may travel abroad with another passport.

Some countries impose particular political and ideological requirements or prohibitions on passport applicants, issuing passports, and perhaps exit-visas, only to those who meet those requirements.

Both Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the auspices of their Basic Laws, they are vested with the authority to issue passports, to contract agreements, to abolish visa requirements with other countries, and to exercise immigration control on foreign nationals. Passports issued by the respective SAR governments state that the bearer is a Chinese national with a right of abode in the issuing SAR. The National People's Congress has also delegated powers to the Hong Kong and Macau governments to administer Chinese nationality laws in their respective regions.

The PRC does not recognise the Republic of China (ROC) as a sovereign state and considers Taiwan a part of its territory. The ROC based in Taiwan since 1949 has not renounced claims to mainland China. Despite presence of mutual immigration control, neither side of the Taiwan Strait considers travelling to and from the mainland and Taiwan international travel. The PRC and the ROC never stamp passports issued from the other side.

A Taiwan resident entering mainland China uses a special permit issued by mainland public security authorities and usually collects this permit in Hong Kong or Macau, which must usually be used as a point of transfer. The ROC government once required all Taiwan residents who planned to go to mainland China to obtain official approval beforehand and would administratively fine (NT$ 20,000 to 100,000) those who did not. However, often unable to ascertain if someone has broken this rule as the PRC would never stamp ROC passports, the authorities practically could not enforce the requirement except on those who had lost their travel documents in the mainland. It has been outright abolished except for officials of the administration who still require case-by case approvals.

At a port of entry in Taiwan, there is a conspicuous facility where mainland residents must surrender their passports and other travel documents issued by mainland authorities. On the other hand, Taiwan residents keep their identity documents issued by Taiwan while in the mainland.

As Hong Kong is considered as a part of the People's Republic of China, travelling to and from Hong Kong and the mainland is not considered international travel. The Public Security Bureau of the Guangdong province has been issuing a special permit (dubbed Home Return Permit) for Hong Kong residents who are Chinese nationals to enter and exit the mainland before and after the handover. Although it has been proposed that the HKSAR passport should supplant this permit, the proposal has been dismissed.

Although many ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong hold British National (Overseas) passports (and British citizen passports issued under the auspices of a programme instituted by the UK in 1990), the PRC Government considers them its nationals, and does not recognise these passports they hold while the PRC does not recognize dual nationality. These people have been using the Home Return Permit to enter mainland China since before the handover.

Further information: British nationality law and Hong Kong
Although a Hong Kong resident may not use British National (Overseas) nor HKSAR passports in its own right for entering Taiwan, these passports must be used in conjunction with a special travel permit issued by Taiwan's administration. First-time travellers must apply beforehand but most other travellers can collect this permit upon arrival, subject to certain restrictions.

British Citizen passports obtained in Hong Kong can be used in its own right to enter the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Further information: Immigration arrangements for British passport holders from Hong Kong visiting the Republic of China (Taiwan)
On the other hand, Taiwan residents travelling to Hong Kong apply for entry permits and collect them at specified airlines. Repeated travellers satisfying certain conditions may apply online.

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The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) issues passports, but only Turkey recognises the statehood of Northern Cyprus. TRNC passports are not accepted for entry into the Republic of Cyprus. Until 2003, the Republic of Turkey did not accept passports of the Republic of Cyprus, because it did not recognize that government. Turkey now accepts Republic of Cyprus passports, but does not stamp them; rather, Turkish immigration officials stamp a separate visa issued by the Turkish state.

Israel
Many Arab and Muslim countries will not allow entries to people with evidence of visits to Israel or used or unused Israeli visas in their passports, since the existence of the state of Israel is not recognised. To help foreigners circumvent these restrictions, Israel does not require visitors to have their passports stamped upon entry or advanced visas, making it difficult for those countries to tell if a citizen or tourist went there. Many of these nations are aware of the exit stamps placed in passports by Egypt and Jordan at their land borders with Israel and may block entry based on the presence of these stamps. For example, a traveller may be denied entry to certain countries because of the presence of an Egyptian exit stamp indicating the person left Egypt at Taba, at the Israeli border. Some nations will void old passports and reissue new passports to their nationals based on the presence of evidence of a visit to Israel, recognising the passport's function is compromised. The United Kingdom Passport Agency and United States Department of State may allow a passport holder to have two valid passports to circumvent the restrictions concerning Israel if the applicant can satisfactorily explain why a second passport is needed when applying.

Arab and Muslim countries not accepting Israeli passports are:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia (except with written permission from the Malaysian government), Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia , Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (sources conflict over whether or not passports with Israeli stamps are accepted), and Yemen.
Muslim countries that do accept Israeli passports include:

Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Turkey, and former Soviet republics with Muslim majority: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The only non-Arab and non-Muslim countries that does not accept Israel passports are Cuba and North Korea due to these nations' enduring alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Cuba is also the only nation in the Americas that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Koreas
Exiting from the region under Republic of Korea's administration (commonly known as South Korea) directly to the North is not international travel from the South's point of view. The Republic of Korea's constitution considers the North as part of its territory, although under different administration. In other words, the South does not view going to and from as breaking the continuity of a person's stay, as long as the traveller does not land on a third territory.

The privilege of a passport in North Korea is limited to a select few. Membership of the Korean Workers' Party is essentially a requisite.

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Pakistan
Pakistan imposes a requirement on its Muslim citizens when they apply for a passport, requiring them to agree to the following:

I am a Muslim and believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) the last of the Prophets.
I do not recognize any who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or any description whatsoever, after Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) or recognize such a claimant as a prophet or a religious reformer as Muslim.
I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani to be an impostor nabi and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori, Qadiani or Mirzai groups, to be non-Muslims.
With the issuance of the new biometric passport in 2005 (in which the religion column was to be deleted), the above declaration would have been made unnecessary. However, this decision was recently reversed by the Pakistan Government on religious parties' resistance. After much debate, the column has come back. New passports will carry religion columns on Page 3; passports already printed will bear a rubber stamp mark declaring the holder's religion. There is no mention of religion on the Pakistani National ID Card.
Saudi Arabia
The Government of Saudi Arabia like some other governments does not officially recognise dual nationality for its citizens. Citizens who have dual nationality generally keep this confidential when in Saudi Arabia. If a second passport is discovered, it may be confiscated and the bearer arrested.

Spain and Gibraltar
The Government of Spain has had a policy of not accepting British passports issued in Gibraltar, on the grounds that the territory's government is not a competent authority for issuing such documents. Consequently some Gibraltarians have been refused entry to Spain when travelling on these documents. However, the word "Gibraltar" now appears beneath the words "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", as appears in passports of other British colonies and dependencies.

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Reciprocal agreements
Some countries have a reciprocal agreements such that a visa is not needed under certain conditions, e.g. when the visit is for tourism and for a relatively short period.

A few countries have agreements allowing for cross-border travel without passports (but generally with identification). Examples include:

The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland: Citizens of the UK and Ireland do not require a passport to travel between the two countries. Other EEA nationals must show a national ID card or Passport. All other nationals require a passport. Many nationals also require visas for both countries.
Further information: Common Travel Area
The CA-4 countries: Citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua do not require a passport to travel between any of the four countries. A National ID card (Cédula) is sufficient for entry. In addition, the CA-4 agreement implemented the Central American Single Visa (Visa Única Centroamericana) for citizens of all other countries, eliminating the need for separate entry visas for each of the countries. Persons entering the region on Type "B" visas can enter the area through any Port of Entry. Persons entering on Type "C" visas (issued through prior consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) must enter through a Port of Entry in the country that issued the visa. Once a person has been admitted, they may travel onto any of the other countries and are allowed to stay through the date authorized at the original Port of Entry.
The NAFTA countries: the United States, Canada, and Mexico, although after a recent announcement, all persons entering the United States, including U.S. citizens, will be required to have a passport, even from Canada and Mexico, starting December 31, 2006 for air and sea travel. On December 31, 2007, passport requirement will also be extended to all land border crossings. The Canadian Government has responded to this by stating that soon U.S. citizens will be required to have a passport to enter Canada.
Mexico does not generally require a passport to enter. As of January 1, 2007 Citizens of the United States will not need a passport to enter into Mexico, but will be required to show their passport when leaving Mexico and re-entering the United States.
The Nordic countries (since 1952), Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, including Faroe Islands and Greenland. (Called the Nordic Passport Union, this area joined the larger Schengen treaty region in 1997.)
Lebanese citizens entering Syria do not require a passport if carrying their Lebanese IDs. Similarly, Syrian nationals do not require a passport to enter Lebanon either, if carrying their Syrian IDs.
Indian, Nepalese and Bhutanese citizens do not require a passport to travel between the three countries. However some identification is needed to cross the borders.
Croatia does not require a passport for citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have a Bosnian ID card. Likewise Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Slovenia and Hungary do not require Croatian citizens to have a passport, only a Croatian ID.
Russia and some former Soviet Union Republics: the participating countries may only require the equivalent of the national ID card (which is called Internal passport (внутренний паспорт)), as opposed to an "international" passport (заграничный паспорт) that a former Soviet citizen would be required to produce to enter other foreign countries.
Many Latin American nationals can travel within their respective regional economic zones, such as Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela) and the Andean Community of Nations (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela) or on a bilateral basis (e.g. between Chile and Peru) without passports, presenting instead their national identification cards or voter registration cards for a limited period. Often, this travel must be done overland rather than by air. There are plans to extend these rights to all of South America under the new South American Community of Nations.

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EU, EEA, and the Schengen treaty
Citizens of the European Economic Area (the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) enjoy the freedom to travel and work in any European Union country without a visa, although transitory dispositions may restrict the rights of citizens of new members to work in other countries.

Furthermore, countries that have signed and applied the Schengen treaty (a subset of the EEA) do not implement border controls between each other, unless exceptional circumstances apply. (Most of the balance of EU countries, plus Switzerland, have signed the Schengen treaty, but not applied it yet. The main reason is, that, according to EU laws, the member states which had joined the EU in 2004 would have to meet strict criteria with respect to their efforts protect EU external borders before intra-EU border controls between the old member states and such new member states may be lifted. Switzerland requires some time to adopt national databases to those of the EU.)

As a consequence of the above, for instance, a French citizen may travel to the United Kingdom, another EEA nation, and then freely work in that country. However, since the UK has not signed the Schengen treaty, he will have to carry at least a national ID card, which will normally be checked at the border. On the other hand, if and when Switzerland applies the Schengen treaty, the French citizen will be able to travel to Switzerland without being stopped at the border, but he will not be able to work freely in that country without authorisation, as it is not a member of the EEA (this notwithstanding the fact that, in most cases, such authorization to work would nevertheless have to be granted by Swiss authorities according to a specific treaty on free movement which had been concluded between the EU and Switzerland). Further, most European countries require all persons to carry or, at least, possess an identity card or passport. So while Switzerland will not check our French traveller at the border, he may have to show his ID card at some stage within the country, although in practice this is rare. Except at the border, ID cards are not required by UK law; however, there is a de facto requirement to prove your identity to conduct business. Our French traveller would have to show ID to obtain a UK bank account or to prove his eligibility to work.

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Refugees and stateless persons
Stateless persons (those to whom no country will grant a passport or citizenship) generally travel internationally on transit documents issued by the United Nations under the terms of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. These are accepted in lieu of passports by most governments. Similarly, refugees and asylum seekers often travel under non-national interim documentation, rather than the passport of the country from which they are fleeing.

The Vatican
The Vatican has no formal immigration controls. As the only entrance to the tiny country is overland from Italy, the de-facto immigration requirements of the Vatican are the same as those of Italy. However, having crossed the border into the Vatican, visitors are subject to Vatican law, not Italian; the Vatican retains its authority as a separate state. The Vatican, however, does issue its own passports to certain Vatican officials born in foreign countries who need to be permanently based at the Vatican or in other Vatican offices. The pope is always given the privilege of 'Passport No.1', which is reissued with the same number for every successive pontiff. For example, Pope John Paul II's Passport No.1 was reissued to Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The U.S. Secretary of State
For reasons similar to the British Monarch above, the U.S. Secretary of State does not possess a passport as U.S. passports are theoretically issued by the Secretary of State, and therefore, the Secretary of State does not require one for him or herself.