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For other meanings, see Passport (disambiguation).
Chinese passport from the Qing dynasty, 24th Year of the Guangxu Reign (1898)
Montenegran passport 1887
A passport is issued by a national government, to identify the bearer as a citizen of the issuing country.Passports are connected with the right to some protection abroad by the national government of the country of which one is a citizen, and with the right to enter the country of which one is a citizen. However, the right to protection does not arise from a passport, nor does the right to enter. Each right arises from citizenship. A passport proves the citizenship of the bearer, and, consequently, his right to protection and his right to enter.
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Cover of a German biometric passport
The inside front cover and first page of a non-biometric British passport
One of the earliest references to passports is found in the biblical book of Nehemiah. Circa 450 B.C., Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes of Persia, asked leave to travel to Judea. The king granted leave, and gave to Nehemiah a letter "to the governors beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he travelled through their lands.Nehemiah 2:7-9.The term "passport" likely does not derive from sea ports, but likely derives from a medieval document required to pass through the gate ("porte") of a city wall. In medieval Europe, those documents were issuable to travellers by local authorities, and a document generally contained a list of towns and cities into which a document holder was permitted to pass. On the whole, documents were not required for travel to sea ports, which were considered open trading points, but documents were required to travel inland from sea ports.
Early passports included a description of the passport holder. Attachment of photographs to passports began in the early decades of the 20th century, when photography became widespread.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century and up to World War I, passports were not required, on the whole, for international travel in Europe, and crossing a border was easy. Consequently, comparatively few people had passports. The breakdown of the European passport system of the early part of the nineteenth century was a result of rail travel. Trains, used extensively from the mid-19th century onward, travelled rapidly, carried numerous passengers, and crossed many borders. Those factors made enforcement of passport laws difficult. The general reaction was abolition of passport requirements. History of Passports. Passport Canada. Retrieved on May 8, 2007. Exceptions were repressive countries, such as the Ottoman Empire and czarist Russia, which maintained passport requirements for international travel. In addition, each of the Ottoman Empire and czarist Russia maintained an internal-passport system to control travel within it.
During World War I, European governments had an interest in keeping out spies, keeping in citizens with useful skills, and retaining potential manpower, so passports were required at borders. After the war, controls were not rescinded, but became standard procedure, though not without controversy. British tourists of the 1920s complained, especially about attached photographs and physical descriptions, which led to a "nasty dehumanisation".Marrus, Michael, The Unwanted: European Refugees in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press (1985), p. 92.
In 1920, the League of Nations held a conference on passports and through tickets. Passport guidelines resulted from the conference, which was followed up by conferences in 1926 and 1927. The United Nations held a travel conference in 1963, but passport guidelines did not result from it. Passport standardisation came about in 1980, under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Rarely, a diplomatic passport is given to a foreign citizen with no passport of his own, such as an exiled VIP who lives, by invitation, in a foreign country. An example is Constantine II of Greece, who has a Danish diplomatic passport.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6289097.stm (Greek protest over London auction).
There are as well alien\'s passports, internal passports, and laissez-passer, none of which is a passport.
An alien\'s passport is a document issued under certain circumstances, such as statelessness, to non-citizen residents.
An internal passport is a document which controls movement within a country. Examples include the iqama in Saudi Arabia, the internal passport of the Soviet Union, and the hukou residence-registration system in mainland China.
A laissez-passer is an equivalent of a passport. Laissez-passer are issued by international organisations to their officers and employees for official travel.
Passports have numerical or alphanumerical designators assiged by the issuing authority.
Passport standards are recommended to national governments by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The standard format includes, on a passport cover, the name of the issuing country, a national symbol, a description of the document (passport, official passport, diplomatic passport), and, if the passport is biometric, the biometric-passport symbol. Inside, there is a title page, also naming the country. This is followed by a data page, on which there is information about the bearer and the issuing authority, although passports of some European Union member states provide that information on the inside back cover. There are blank pages available for foreign countries to affix visas, and to stamp for entries and exit.
Machine-readable passports are standardised by the ICAO.Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD). ICAO. Retrieved on June 15, 2006. There is a zone in which most of the information written as text is also printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition.
Conformable with ICAO standards, a biometric passport has a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, which contains data about the passport bearer, a photograph of him in digital format, and data about the passport.
Many countries issue biometric passports. The stated reasons for RFID chips in passports are clearance through immigration and prevention of identity fraud. These reasons are disputed by privacy advocates.The ID Chip You Don\'t Want in Your Passport. Bruce Schneier. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.Scan This Guy\'s E-Passport and Watch Your System Crash. Kim Zetter. Retrieved on September 1, 2007. Governments are reluctant to acknowledge privacy concerns.
Although many countries issue biometric passports, few introduced the equipment needed to read them at ports of entry. In the absence of an international standard, it is not possible for one country to read the biometric information in passports issued by another country.
A passport contains a message from the nominal issuing officer, such as the secretary of state or the minister of external affairs. The passport message, usually near the front of a passport, requests that the bearer of the passport be allowed to pass freely, and further requests that, in the event of need, the bearer be granted assistance.
For example, the passport message in an Israeli passport states in Hebrew (read from right to left) and in English:
Another example is the New Zealand passport, which states in English and in Maori:
Other examples: United Kingdom;Queen and Passport - royal.gov.uk. United States.See "Passport Message" in the United States passport article.
An international conference on passports and through tickets, held by the League of Nations in 1920, recommended that passports be issued in French, historically the language of diplomacy, and one other language. Nowadays, the ICAO recommends that passports be issued in English and French, or in the national language of the issuing country and in either English or French.
The design and layout of passports of the member states of the European Union are a result of consensus and recommendation, rather than of directive.Resolutions of 23 June 1981, 30 June 1982, 14 July 1986 and 10 July 1995 concerning the introduction of a passport of uniform pattern, OJEC, 19 September 1981, C 241, p. 1; 16 July 1982, C 179, p. 1; 14 July 1986, C 185, p. 1; 4 August 1995, C 200, p. 1. Passports are issued by member states, not by the EU. The data page can be at the front or at the back of a passport, and there are small design differences to indicate which member state is the issuer. The covers of ordinary passports are burgundy-red, with "European Union" written in the national language or languages. Below that are the name of the country, a national symbol, the word or words in the national language or languages for "passport", and, at the bottom, the symbol for a biomteric passport.
In Central America, the members of the CA-4 Treaty (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) adopted a common-design passport, called the Central American passport. Although the design had been in use by Nicaragua and El Salvador since the mid-1990s, it became the norm for the CA-4 in January, 2006. The main features are the navy-blue cover with the words "América Central" and a map of Central America, and with the territory of the issuing country highlighted in gold. This substitutes one map for four national symbols. At the bottom of the cover are the name of the issuing country and the passport type. As of 2006, the Nicaraguan passport, which is the model for the passports of the three other countries, is issued in Spanish, French, and English.
The member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) recently began issuing passports to a common design, featuring the CARICOM symbol along with the national symbol and name of the member state, rendered in an CARICOM official language (English, French, Dutch). The member states which use the common design are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) had originally planned for a common OECS passport by January 1, 2003, but it was delayed. Plans to introduce a CARICOM common passport would have made the OECS passport redundant, since all full members of the OECS were also full members of CARICOM. Thus, by November, 2004, the OECS governments agreed to give CARICOM a deadline of May, 2005, to introduce a CARICOM passport, failure of which would have resulted in moving ahead with the introduction of the OECS Passport. The CARICOM passport was introduced in January, 2005, by Suriname, so the idea of an OECS passport was abandoned. Had the OECS passport been introduced, however, it would not have been issued to economic citizens within the OECS states.
Cover of an Argentinian passport
The declaration adopted in Cusco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations, signalled an intention 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 names and seals, along with the name of their regional grouping. Examples include Paraguay and Ecuador.
The members of the Andean Community of Nations began, in 2001, the process of adopting a common passport format. Specifications for the common passport format were outlined in an Andean Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in 2002.Andean Community / Decision 525: Minimum specific technical characteristics of Andean Passport. The member states also agreed to phase in new Andean passports, bearing the official name of the regional body in Spanish (Comunidad Andina), by January, 2005. Previously-issued national passports will be valid until their expiry dates. The Andean passport is currently in use in Ecuador and Peru. Bolivia and Colombia were to start issuing Andean passports in early 2006. Andean passports are bordeaux (burgundy-red), with words in gold. Above the national seal of the issuing country is the name of the organization in Spanish, which is centred and is printed in a large font. Below the seal is the official name of the member country. At the bottom of the cover are the Spanish word for "passport" and the word "passport" in English. Venezuela left the Andean Community, so it is likely that the country will no longer issue Andean passports.
Passports contain a statement of the nationality of the holder. A country with complex nationality laws could issue various passports which are similar in appearance but are representative of differing national statuses. Due to the British colonial heritage and contemporary laws, the United Kingdom has a number of classes of United Kingdom nationality, and more than one relationship of persons to the United Kingdom. The several classes and relationships cause foreign governments to subject this or that group of United Kingdom passport holders to one or another set of entry requirements.
A version of Tongan citizenship is available through investment. An investor is described in a Tongan passport as a Tongan protected person. The status does not carry with it the right of abode in Tonga. Many countries accept Tongan passports which reflect actual Tongan citizenship, but do not accept Tongan passports which reflect investment citizenship.
Passports dependent on citizenship and domicile are issued under the authority of the People\'s Republic of China (PRC). The one country, two systems model resulted in the PRC issuing passports, Hong Kong issuing passports, and Macau issuing passports. Foreign countries hinge visa-free travel, visa on arrival, and visas on whether a traveller bears a PRC passport, a Hong Kong passport, or a Macau passport, though, under the PRC nationality law, Chinese people who are domiciled in the PRC, Hong Kong, or Macau are all Chinese nationals.
Pakistan requires a Muslim citizen who applies for a passport to subscribe to the following declaration:
The declaration was instituted by the Islamist military regime of Zia-ul-Haq. The reason for the declaration is to prevent Qadianis from going to Mecca or Medina for Hajj or Umra. In the Pakistani biometric passport, there is no box for noting the religion of the passport holder. This seemingly made the religious subscription unnecessary. However, deletion of the box was reversed by the Pakistani government, in response to the religious parties. Passports have the religion box on page 3. Passports without the religion box have a rubber-stamp declaration of the passport holder\'s religion. There is no mention of religion on the Pakistani national ID Card.Application Form. New Passport. Retrieved on June 15, 2006.
Citizenship of the Republic of Ireland is no longer given to all those born on the island of Ireland. A person who was born in Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom, and who is entitled to claim Irish citizenship and apply for an Irish passport, is now subject to the same rules. That is, anyone born on the island of Ireland (i.e., in Northern Ireland or in the Republic of Ireland) before 2004 is entitled to Irish citizenship. People of Northern Ireland are entitled to United Kingdom nationality. As of 2005, Irish citizenship is not conferred on anyone born on the island of Ireland if he does not have at least one parent who is an Irish citizen or a UK citizen, or does not have one parent who was legally resident on the island of Ireland for at least three years prior to birth. Ireland and the UK agreed that a person born in Northern Ireland will not be considered an Irish citizen until he performs an act that can normally only be done by an Irish citizen, such as applying for an Irish passport. Claiming an Irish passport does not eliminate that person\'s United kingdom citizenship or his right to also hold a UK passport.
Irish citizenship can be claimed by grandchildren of Irish-born people, meaning approximately 5 million people in the UK can obtain Irish passports. In the Republic of Ireland, a significant number of people is entitled to UK passports through connections by descent or residence with the United Kingdom. Furthermore, those born before 1949 can also obtain UK passports as British subjects.
Typical laws about passports declare that passports are government property, and may be limited or revoked at any time, usually on specified grounds. A limitation or a revocation is generally subject to judicial review.
In many countries, law or judicial authority permits a court to make surrender of a passport a condition of granting bail.
Many countries issue only one passport to each national. When a passport is due to expire and a passport holder applies for another passport, he is required to hand over the passport in his possession for invalidation by the passport authority. Handing over and invalidating are prerequisite to issuance of another passport, unless the passport holder explains, to the satisfaction of the passport authority, why the passport presumptively in his possession cannot be handed over.
Some countries allow, under specified circumstances, the holding of more than one passport by a citizen. One circumstance is a disqualifying stamp in a passport, such as a stamp which shows travel to Israel, and the citizen intends travel to an Arab country. Another circumstance is the need to travel while a visa is applied for, and it is likely that consideration of the visa application will be protracted.
Under the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, each person who travels by air from outside the United States must present a passport or other travel document to enter the United States. For land travel and sea travel, a U.S. citizen must present a passport, a passport card, a WHTI-compliant document, or a government-issued photo ID (e.g., a driver license) and proof of citizenship (e.g., a birth certificate). Later in 2008, a U.S. citizen who enters the United States by land or sea will be required to have passport, a passport card, or a WHTI-compliant document.www://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html.
Most often, a country accepts the passports of other countries as valid for international travel and valid for entry. There are exceptions, such as: A country does not recognise the passport-issuing country as a sovereign state. An issued passport does not represent the right of abode of the bearer in the country which issued the passport.
Brazil does not accept passports issued by Hong Kong and passports issued by Macau. Travellers with those passports must apply for a Brazilian laissez-passer, which authorises a single entry into Brazil.
The People\'s Republic of China (PRC), on the mainland, does not recognise the Republic of China (ROC), on Taiwan, as a sovereign state. Rather, the PRC regards Taiwan as a part of its territory, although the PRC never had authority over Taiwan. The ROC, for its part, has not renounced its claim to mainland China, although the ROC has been on Taiwan since 1949, and has no authority over the mainland. Despite PRC and ROC immigration controls, neither considers travel between mainland China and Taiwan as international travel. Neither the PRC nor the ROC stamps passports issued by the other.
Citizens of the ROC use permits, issued by PRC public-security authorities, to enter mainland China. Permits are collected in Hong Kong or in Macau, whichever is the point of first arrival on the mainland from Taiwan. The ROC used to require its citizens who intended travel to mainland China to obtain official approval for the travel, and prescribed an administrative fine of NT$20,000 to NT$100,000 for those who did not. However, the fine was often unimposable, because the PRC did not stamp ROC passports. Thus, there was no way for the ROC to determine who should have been subjected to the fine, except if an ROC citizen lost his ROC passport while on the mainland, and, so, had to report the loss. The official-approval requirement was abolished, except in relation to ROC officials, of whom applications are required.
At a port of entry in Taiwan, there is a conspicuous facility where PRC citizens must surrender their passports and other travel documents. On the mainland, ROC citizens keep their identity documents issued by Taiwan.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) issues passports, but only Turkey recognises its statehood. TRNC passports are not accepted for entry into the Republic of Cyprus. Until 2003, Turkey did not accept passports of Cyprus, because Cyprus did not recognize the TRNC. Presently, Turkey accepts Cypriot passports, but does not stamp them. Rather, Turkish immigration officials stamp a separate visa issued by Turkey.
The Republic of Cyprus refuses entry to holders of Yugoslav passports which bears a renewal stamp with "Macedonia".Passports, Visas & Permits. Cyprus Facts. Retrieved on June 15, 2006.
On the mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau SAR are each empowered by its Basic Law to issue passports. A HKSAR passport states that the holder is a Chinese national with the right of abode in Hong Kong. Similarly, a MSAR passport states that the bearer is a Chinese national with the right of abode in Macau.
Hong Kong maintains border controls at all points of entry, as does Macau. Each of Hong Kong and Macau requires travel documents for entry and exit, even if a traveller bears a PRC passport, though the Hong Kong government and the Macau government are units of the PRC government, and though neither travel to or from Hong Kong and the mainland nor travel to or from Macau and the mainland is international travel.
The Public Security Bureau of Guangdong, the Chinese province adjacent to Hong Kong, issues a permit, dubbed the Home Return Permit, to Chinese people domiciled in Hong Kong who were PRC citizens before the 1997 handover, to allow them to enter and exit the PRC. A proposal that the Hong Kong SAR passport should supplant this permit was dismissed.
Many Chinese people domiciled in Hong Kong hold British National (Overseas) passports (and British citizen passports issued under the British Nationality Selection Scheme instituted by the United Kingdom in the 1990s). The PRC, for its part, considers Chinese people domiciled in Hong Kong to be PRC citizens. The PRC does not recognise such BN(O) and BC passports, and does not recognise the attendant United Kingdom nationality, inasmuch as PRC law does not permit dual nationality. Chinese people domiciled in Hong Kong who have such BN(O) and BC passports use the Home Return Permit to enter the mainland China. It is not possible to renounce PRC nationality on the basis of holding a form of British nationality obtained in HK.
A Chinese person domiciled in Hong Kong may not use a British National (Overseas) passport or a HKSAR passport in its own right for entering Taiwan. BN(O) and HKSAR passports must be used in conjunction with the Entry Permit of HK and Macao Residents to the Taiwan Area issued by the ROC.
In contrast, a British citizen passport obtained in Hong Kong by a Chinese person domiciled in Hong Kong may be used in its own right to enter Taiwan. (See Visa policy of the Republic of China)
A Chinese person domiciled in Hong Kong or in Macau, the passport held by him regardless, may travel to the other special administrative region on his ID card.[citation needed] Each traveller must complete an arrival/departure card. Holders of smart ID cards of Hong Kong or Macau may enter Hong Kong or Macau through an automatic channel after fingerprints are read and matched by a computer.[citation needed]
ROC citizens who travel to Hong Kong apply for entry permits and collect them at airline counters. Repeat travellers satisfying certain conditions may apply online.
Some countries will not allow entry to people with evidence of travel to Israel, or whose passports have a used or an unused Israeli visa. Those countries are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrein, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia -- except with written permission from the Malaysian government, Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar -- though Israeli passport holders can transit the Doha airport, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
To circumvent the travel restrictions, Israel used to not require visitors to have their passports stamped with Israeli visas or with Israeli entry and exit stamps. The procedure made it impossible to tell if a traveller had been to Israel. Since September, 2006, Israeli immigration officials will rarely agree not to stamp passports.Travel Advice by Country Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The countries which do not allow entry to people with evidence of travel to Israel are aware of the entry and exit stamps stamped in passports by Egypt and Jordan at their respective land borders with Israel. Non-allowing countries prohibit entry based on the presence of a tell-tale Egyptian or Jordanian stamp. A traveller, for example, would be denied entry based on the presence of an Egyptian stamp, in his passport, which indicates that he crossed into or out of Egypt at Taba on the Egyptian-Israeli border.
From the point of view of South Korea, travel from the section of the Korean peninsula under South Korean administration directly to the section of the Korean peninsula under North Korean administration is not international travel. Under the constitution of South Korea, the section of the Korean peninsula under North Korean administration is part of South Korea, but under a different administration.
Spain does not accept United Kingdom passports issued in Gibraltar, on the ground that the government of Gibraltar is not a competent authority for issuing UK passports. Consequently, some Gibraltarans were refused entry to Spain. "Gibraltar" now appears beneath the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" on passport covers, which is the usual format for passports of British colonies and dependencies.
Some countries decline to accept Tongan Protected Person passports, though they accept Tongan citizen passports. Tongan Protected Person passports are sold by the government of Tonga to anyone who is not a Tongan national. A holder of a Tongan Protected Person passport is forbidden to enter or settle in Tonga. Generally, those holders are refugees, stateless persons, and individuals who for politcal reasons do not have access to any other passport-issuing authority.
The 2003 Swiss passport is labeled in the country\'s four national languages and in English.
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 member states to work in other countries. The same rights are also accorded to citizens of Switzerland, although they remain separate from the EEA.
European citizens travelling within the European Union may use standard compliant national ID cards rather than passports. Not all EU countries produced standard compliant national ID cards, and in other countries few people obtained one, which means that many persons need a passport anyway. The Swedish national identity card is valid only within the countries which fully implemented the Schengen Agreement, plus Switzerland.
Countries that have signed and applied the Schengen treaty (a subset of the EEA) do not implement passport controls between each other, unless exceptional circumstances apply. Most of the remaining EU countries, plus Switzerland, have signed the Schengen treaty, but have not applied it yet. The main reason is that, according to EU law, the member states which joined the EU in 2004 would have to meet strict criteria with respect to their efforts to protect EU external borders before intra-EU border controls between the old member states and new member states may be lifted. Switzerland requires some time to adapt its national databases to those of the EU.
As a consequence of the above, a French citizen, for example, 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, the French citizen will have to carry at least a national ID card, which will 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, because Switzerland is not a member of the EEA. This is true notwithstanding the fact that, in most cases, authorisation 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.
Some European countries require all persons to carry or, at least, possess, an identity card or a passport. So while Switzerland will not check French travellers\' passports at the border, they may have to show their national ID cards within the country, such as when required by police officers to do so.
Except at the border, ID cards are not required by UK law. There is, however, a de-facto requirement to prove one\'s identity to conduct business. A European has to show a European national ID card to open a UK bank account or to prove eligibility to work.
Refugees and stateless persons, who do not have access to passports, may be issued a travel document by the country in which they reside. Holders of those travel documents generally require visas for international travel, and are not be entitled to consular protection. Exceptions to this include persons holding 1951 Convention Documents, who could benefit from some visa-free travel under the convention, persons who reside in the Schengen area, and persons who reside in the Nordic Passport Union area. Holders of UK passports and Irish passports do not benefit from visa-free travel within the Common Travel Area.
For immigaration control, immigration officials stamp passports with entry stamps and exit stamps. A stamp can serve different purposes. In the United Kingdom, an immigration stamp in a passport includes the formal leave to enter granted to a person subject to entry control. Otherwise, a stamp activates or acknowledges the continuing leave conferred in the passport bearer\'s entry clearance.
Under the Schengen system, a passport is stamped with a date stamp which does not indicate any duration of stay. This stamp is taken to mean either that the person is deemed to have permission to remain for three months or for the period shown on his visa.
Neither the UK nor a Schengen country is allowed to stamp the passport of a person not subject to immigration control, whether a citizen of that country or a national of another EU country. Stamping is prohibited, because a passport stamp is imposition of a control that the person is not subject to. This concept is not applicable in other countries, where a stamp in a passport simply acknowledges the entry or exit of a person.
Countries have different styles of stamps for entries and exits, to make it easy to identify the movements of persons. The colour of the ink may also provide information about movements. In Hong Kong, prior to and immediately after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty, entry and exit stamps were identical at all ports of entry, but colours differed. Airport stamps used black ink, land stamps used red ink, and sea stamps used purple ink. In Macau, under Portuguese administration, the same colour of ink was used for all stamps. The stamps had slightly-different borders to indicate entry and exit by air, land, or sea.
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| Passports | |
|---|---|
By continent | |
| Africa | Algeria · Cape Verde · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Egypt · Ethiopia · Ghana · Kenya · Mauritius · Morocco · Namibia · Nigeria · Seychelles · South Africa · Swaziland · Tunisia |
| Asia | Afghanistan · Armenia · Azerbaijan · Brunei · People\'s Republic of China · Republic of China · Hong Kong · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Israel · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · North Korea · Kyrgyzstan · Lebanon · Macau · Malaysia · Maldivan · Nepal · Pakistan · Philippines · Saudi Arabia · Singapore · South Korea · Thailand · Vietnam |
| Australia | Australia · New Zealand · Papua New Guinea |
| Europe | European Union · Albania · Andorra · Austria · Belarus · Belgium · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · Latvia · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Macedonia · Malta · Moldova · Monaco · Montenegro · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia · San Marino · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey · Ukraine · United Kingdom |
| North America | Bahamas · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Panama · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · United States |
| South America | Andean Community of Nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) · Argentina · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Guyana · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Uruguay · Venezuela |
| United Nations | United Nations |
By type | Other Biometric · Internal · Machine-readable | Alien · Camouflage · Hajj · Laissez-passer · Pet · World | |
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