Once I arrived with my EU Laissez-Passer at the UK border and the new border guard didn't know what it was. His training supervisor said to him. "Laissez-Passer is French and means 'let him pass' ... so let him pass." To be fair though, most of the time my EU-LP is completely new to the border guards, even within the EU.
I need to make a "donnez-moi un million de euros" document. The supervisor can say, "that's French for 'give him a million bucks' so give him a million bucks" :)
It really depends on the country. many countries there are diplomatic lines, but even in Washington DC a "real" dedicated diplomatic line only exists since 2019. In countries where you need a visa as a diplomat it's easy, they only care if you have a diplomatic visa in your passport, in countries with an agreement for visa-free travel for diplomats its more tricky. For example, theoretically China and Japan accept the EU laissez-passer without a visa, but in practice it is not on the list of valid documents that the border agents have, so always good to have a back-up national passport with you...
My father worked for the World Bank, and had a Laissez-passer UN passport, as well as a US Passport. He was considered a diplomat when traveling on business, arranging for billion dollar loans to countries, but he could not use it for pleasure travel.
@@andii256 Interrogate with thumb screws? Just ask? IT's just one of those things that you are supposed or not supposed to do. And most pleasure travel would be with family.
You can use it for leisure only when you re enter the country where you work (if it’s not yours) when you’ve been abroad. And you need a paper that say that yes you need to be in this country to work for the UN. Elsewhere, you are not supposed to use it in a border control. But if you’re driving like a shit, yes you can use it 🤫
There’s a good story about the Iran Hostage crisis and Canada issuing passports to the captured Americans. Rare act of closed parliament to issue them in secret.
@@GPEtana Definitely South Korean. I've seen only three of those and they belonged to members of the same family. It's also the best passport design I've seen to date.
@@jendorei not as big a problem as you would think… those rare passport generally will need a visa… immigration inspectors will look for a visa from their overseas consulate. If that’s not there, there are public websites that an inspector can reference.
@@jendorei Not really. Passports are generally designed similar to each other due to international standarts. If we need to check out security features to make sure we have a database that shows the spesifics of every current passport.
"Laissez-passer" literally just means "Let [me] pass]" 😜 Btw., the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is identical with the medieval crusader order often called the Hospitallers. After they lost the Holy Land, they shifted to other areas, first to Rhodes and then to Malta, always searching for Muslims to fight against. Their full name tells their story: "The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta". So yeah, there is a real Crusader Knight Order who gives out passports and who is an observer in the UN.
A previous HAI episode went into detail about the Sovereign Order of Malta, I'm surprised Sam didn't explicitly call it out. th-cam.com/video/8gYDjWUefI4/w-d-xo.html
There are a few actually but they are in a grey area as far as if they are the OG Orders, the Order of Lazarus has a few branches recognized by the UN but does not have a passport and there are a few other Orders of Malta that work with the SMOM that are also UN observers.
"speaking of beating people to death with no legal repercussions, our next subject is the police" i love these snarky jokes please never stop making them
@@null7879 Edit: I just realized I misread your message. I thought you said "with". In that case, it makes more sense now. You're insulting me for complimenting a joke, and implying that I "can't watch a video without it" even though I said nothing of the sort. Still have no idea why you brought up flashing colors though.
He's a self declared Antifa supporter, Soros-paid (Wendover Production is significantly funded by the Open Society Foundation), intentional felon. It's dsgusting that you'd then go and condone his terrorist behavior
You missed Holy See passports, which are distinct from Vatican City State passports. They're mainly diplomatic and service passports, similar to (but better than and about as rare as) the Sovereign Military Order of Malta passports.
Holy see passports is basically Vatican's Diplomatic passport for it's ambassadors and diplomats to UN and other countries. All countries have different type of passport for their diplomats. It's different from civilian passports.
@@_vindicator_ but what he is saying is that there is a separate passport issued by the Vatican City (the state) and the Holy See (then office of the pope) (The king of the Vatican and the Holy See are always the same person though so the distinction is odd)
I just checked and passeport is actually "pass the (sea) port", not the door (although the confusion is very understandable, I might have made the same mistake xd)
In french they don't pronounce the t, so it's port same as in english. The first passports were to allow someone to go on a boat at times when travel was restricted. It was more like what we call today an exit visa. The passport had no value outside of the area under control of the issuer. So it was just a pass to use the port.
The reason Canada has allowed the Iroquois passport to be used for entry is because by law citizens must be allowed to return unless fleeing law enforcement from a country we have an extradition treaty with.
Yep, but it wouldn't be right to say they used it for entry. They just showed up at border control, were asked where they are really from, and upon realizing they're Canadian citizens their identity was verified in the database and they were allowed entry based on that alone
So this "Iroquois passport" thing was accepted better than a Canadian Citizenship Card with your picture on it, eh? I don't know what to say about that.
@@pamelakennedysztyblewsky2454 i think it‘s the owner not accepting the Canadian citizenship card. Were they supposed to cause an outrage denying indigenous people access to their laand?
Someone needs to tell Australia about that law lol. Aussie citizens were totally locked out during the pandemic, but wasn't the first time. During the Asian Tsunami it blew my mind that Australia sent so many officials overseas to reissue passports/visas to allow Aussies who lost them in the tsunami to travel home. Insane! They should have just thrown anyone who said they were an Aussie onto a plane headed for Australia & dealt with identifying them once they landed (could have done a lot of the work on route too in reality) & anyone who wasn't actually an Aussie could have just been showered, fed & watered, clothed, given medical care & held at the airport until they contacted friends or family or authorities in their real country to get identity documents to fly home to their real country. Australia also likes to strip citizenship from any duel citizen who breaks the law, causing some tension with NZ after sending to NZ people who came to Australia as babies but had duel citizenship due to actually being born in NZ to NZ in their 20's & 30's, cause of them breaking the law in Australia. NZ was understandably not impressed! I had a friend some years ago btw who had only 1 stamp on their passport, an Australian one! They had gone skiing in NZ & NZ doesn't require passports for Aussies to travel there, so he hadn't got a NZ stamp in it, only the Aussie stamp that he got due to requiring an Aussie passport to be allowed to re-enter Australia. We really could learn a thing or 2 from Canada & NZ!
@@mehere8038 Well, the law in question is The Constitution Act, 1982, Part 1 (The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms), Section 6 (Mobility Rights) laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html#h-44 I couldn't find a comparable section in the Australian Constitution.
I assumed whenever an Interpol agent needed to go to a foreign country they would just walk outside and wait for a rope with a harness attached to fall next to them. They would attach the harness to themself very quickly and the helicopter would hoist them up and start flying as fast as it could to the mission. Or maybe that was a Jason Bourne movie
In the UK, our passports are officially still issued by the monarch. There’s a little ‘letter’ from the issuing monarch (mostly QE2, but soon KC3) on the inside cover
My passport was issued by a monarch. It says inside: "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary." I suppose my next one will be issued by HIS Britannic Majesty.
Most importantly, it'll be blue! All totally worth it for that. I got my most recent one in between the removal of "European Union" and the colour change. Interstitial!
In commonwealth countries most authority is still ceremonially derived from the monarch. So yeah, the Que... King signs your passport, driver's license, and jail warrant.
Just imagine passport officers going "ooooooh that's a rare passport you've got there. Wanna trade it for this [______] passport I've got here?" Trading cards, just with much higher potential repercussions
I’ve had 3 different types of US Passports….blue (tourist passport), red (govt/official passport), and black (diplomatic passport). On more than one occasion, when traveling with the diplomatic passport, customs and immigration officials as well as airline personnel pulled me/my family out of line to bring us to the front of the line to expedite us through the process…whether it was entering or departing a country or waiting to board a plane. This occurred in several European and African countries, but never in the US. Transiting through Morocco a couple of times, immigration officials rushed us off to a special VIP room in the airport terminal to relax and we were served tea and some snacks as we had a couple of hours of layover before the next flight. The officials told us that someone would retrieve us and take us directly to the gate for boarding. As a Sergeant First Class/ E-7 in the US Army (on embassy duty in another country), at the time, traveling with my wife and three children, all under 8 years old, I felt like royalty.
@@jeon5108 No. Similar experience as with a tourist passport when traveling commercial. Traveling on military aircraft, however, someone would collect all of our official passports and get them stamped---we didn't need to go through immigration/customs in the airport terminal.
Mariners also use Seaman's books or Seaman Service Books (SSB). These are official records of mariner employment on ships involved in international voyages. These books looks exactly like passports and can be used for mariner repatriation in case of losing national passport. So they are valid travel documents but only for getting back to your home country and for traveling being employed on ship (and staying in ports worldwide).
While my country Singapore 🇸🇬 has been issuing red passports for travel since independence, they also used to issue a blue "restricted" passport that was only for travel to neighboring Malaysia 🇲🇾 and no other countries. Only a few thousand people held that passport and it kinda expired in 1999. Ever since then, the only valid Singaporean passport is the red one even when entering Malaysia 🇲🇾.
It's similar to how the US has in addition to a standard passport, a passport card, which is credit-card sized and shaped to fit in your wallet. It only lets you travel by air within the US, and by land or sea to certain countries in North America (mainly Canada and Mexico). It's a lot cheaper and easier to get than a proper full-size passport, but the limited usability is a major catch
I felt so seen when you mentioned stateless people cause that's me! I have a lebanese travel document cause my grandparents had to leave palestine for Lebanon when u know what happened. That travel document has been a big and bleak portion of my life thus far. All the opportunities I lost and things I couldn't pursue or even try because of my shit travel document. It hurts a lot when you work hard for something and get told no at the last step, because of a thing that's out of your hand and was predetermined for you before your parents were even born 💔.
@@B3Band did you not read what I said about working hard for something to be stripped away from me at the end because of my travel document? I doubt you are palestanian (stateless) with a lebanese travel document. Because you'll know how impossible it is to even get a 30 day visa to a country, let alone a citizenship. You're telling me to get a citizenship when im not even allowed to enter my own country (palestine) nor many more around the world. Also, If you don't know, most countries around the world unlike Europe and North America don't give you a citizenship no matter how long you stay in the country. And finally, those were not excuses, doesn't seem like you know what an excuse is. I've tried many things and worked hard, yet I still get rejected cause of my travel document. I didn't say uve given up in my comment and I haven't. So tell me, where did you get the audacity to comment this when you clearly have no idea what being stateless and having a travel document from a falling apart, 3rd world country means? You don't know where I am in life right now, and I honestly don't think it worth my time to tell you all the things I've done the last 5 years of my life.
@@B3Band all this without even mentioning the financial burden. Cause u know more than half of Lebanon is living under poverty rn, they definitely have money to leave
Fun(?) Fact: At 00:20, the top left document was issued by the Hungarian Embassy in Kiev, for someone by the name of Oksana. Although realistically it is probably just a sample passport.
Pretty certain they're all Ukrainian passports with different visas. 1 says nationality UKR, 2 has the Hungarian embassy in Kiev stamp, 3 has Ukrainian cyrillic, and 4 has a stamp from Hurghada, which gets a lot of tourists from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
@@RusNadope, only the top right is (upside-down особливі відмітки means special notes). Bottom left is definetly not ukrainian - wrong colors (its plain white with national monument like cathedral in the background, holders signature and authority in bottom right and 🔱 Україна 🔱 Ukraine 🔱 at the top )
The thumbnail has a HAI passport that’s purple with a yellow H and the words are written in the Star Wars language. I don’t think that one can be used to travel anywhere, but I love the attention to detail and the little jokes.
I can vouch for the non-limited edition Smurf (UN) Passport. Back in '96 my Uncle was doing work on behalf of the Smurfs helping to develop Namibia's fishing industry (which involved a fight with South Africa to get there but that's another story), when my family was visiting we all planned a trip driving down to Cape town. My family on NZ and Australian Passports cross the border fine but my Uncle could not bring his children into South Africa. They had been born in Kiribati and so had Kiribati Passports which were not recognised in SA. There's a chance in the not-long-after-Apartheid era that it just had not been rubber stamped yet but in any case they were denied entry because of the legacy of racism and I hope this issue is fixed now (in recognising Kiribati Passports). ANYWAYS, we spend a night in a camp (ok, old Army barracks) on the Namibian side all very sad. Then in the night my Uncle remembered his Smurf Passport which immediate family can also travel on. South African border guards: the next day : "Sorry about that Mr Clark..."
Kiribati literally has less than 200k people TODAY I doubt it was higher before and I highly doubt it was due to racism, in a pre-internet world verifying that such a small country exists would be difficult.
Jordan also issues "Temporary" Jordanian passports, that function pretty much the same way normal Jordanian passports do, they only issue them for Palestinian non-citizens if they get security clearance.
Estonia and Latvia have a non-citezen passport, for those who have been born in the country prior to 1991 but have no recorded relatives living there pre 1940. These are also called alien passports and somehow the EU is chill enough with it to let these guys be a part of the Union. Why do they meet the criteria of being a member while say Bosnia and Herzegovina doesn't? I can't answer that
@@Cerg1998 A country doesn't "meet the criteria". A country accepts the list of things they have to do in order to join. Some countries refuse to do certain things on that list.
@@Cerg1998 Bosnia is a territory still under UN-protectorate. The highest executive power lies with the High Representative of the United Nations for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at the time is Mr. Christian Schmidt. The UN is willing to hand over full souveranity to the Bosnian officials, if the three ethnic groups can agree on a common government, which they cannot. So this temporary status keeps going on for years now. De facto Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a full souverain country by that.
3:00 reminds me of being an Information Officer in a by-election. In our name tag sleeves (which hung around our necks on a string) we kept a yellow piece of paper which was what officially appointed us to work for Elections Canada. I recall at least one occasion where someone questioned my authority and so I flipped my name badge around and said something about the paper (I can't remember exactly what I said) meant I was appointed to work for the federal government. Not the same level as the UN obviously but that "bragging right" was great.
I've just gotta tell you about the Republic of Houtbay passport. Houtbay is a fishing village close to Cape Town, South Africa. Access is via one of three mountain passes, so it's this cute little self contained area. The local Lions and Rotary clubs decided to "declare" the Republic of Houtbay, and then invented a passport for said republic. They used to set up "border checkpoints" on the entry roads, and demand to see passports, and then offer to sell citizenship and passports to the "republic". All in good jest and all proceeds 100% for charity. But word on the street is that some people have actually travelled internationally with the passport, and have entry and exit stamps to prove it 🙂
I know a guy who works for UNICEF, he has 2 blue UN passports. As far as I'm aware, they are both permanent. One is for most jobs, and the other is for when he has to go to Israel, because they wont let him in if it has an arab Visa sticked into it.
First I was angry that you showed Malta when saying "places that aren't actually countries"... Then I was thrilled when you described the SMOM passport.
Hong Kong have our own passport, but we got 2 different nationalities using 1 passport. Majority are Chinese nationality, but some of the people are holding stateless nationality Hong Kong passport. Usually are south Asian origin, they born in Hong Kong, have Hong Hong citizenship. But, Hong Kong gov is under Chinese gov, the Chinese gov doesn’t recognise them as Chinese nationality. Also, some countries in the world recognise Hong Kong have a country status, in the arrival card, if we wrote Chinese instead of Hong Kong, we may got into trouble.
Some Hong Kongers also hold the British National (Overseas) passport originally given out back when HK was still ruled by the UK, & has been used by some to migrate to the UK, but 1 of my friends believe that that passport would've expired once HK returned to China from the UK in 1997. Otherwise the country her family has migrated to would force her to give up her BN(O) passport as it'd be considered a form of dual citizenship (together with the passport of the country she migrated to), which that country doesn't recognize
Just curious, are those stateless Hong Kong passports work exactly the same way as Hong Kong passports with Chinese nationality except for entering Mainland China (mean that people who hold those passports are allowed the same visa-free entries to countries that exempt visa for HK citizens and go through the same procedure to apply for a visa to enter countries that do require a visa for HK citizens to enter)?
When Latvia regained independence in 1991, it issued citizen passports to everyone with Latvian ancestry and alien passports to everyone else. So if you were born in Latvia in 1990, lived your entire life there, speak Latvian fluently, but your parents aren't Latvians, then you are an alien and need to pass a naturalization test to get the real passport. There are currently still around 200000 people with alien passports in Latvia.
I believe that when you do speak fluently Latvian, your chances of getting naturalised are quite considerable, though. It's mostly people who don't speak Latvian who are still just 'aliens'.
I mean, if you were in that situation wouldn't the naturalisation test be very easy? Also how does it work for the Schengen area, are they considered Latvian by other countries?
@@My_Old_YT_Account For someone who speak Latvian, the test is easy. For those who don't, they'd need to spend a few months to learn enough to pass it. The test is fair, it's passable for anyone who can put in the effort. Alien passport holders can travel to Schengen Area without a visa, but unlike citizens, they can't stay there permanently or work there without a permit. On the other hand, they are allowed to travel to Russia without a visa, while citizens can't. Basically, those people have an unique legal status and aren't treated like anyone else.
@@My_Old_YT_Account Citizenship is the very right of each EU-Member State. If a country says that they are aliens, not citizens, then they are aliens. But the alien passport can be seen as a residency permit and that may be transferable within the EU. Note that an alien passport (statelessnes) is not the worst situation. Russia regularly denies do issue documents stating that a person is not a russian citizen. Russia even denies to issue a document that they deny a statement. The result is "unknown citizenship" and blocks people from naturalizing and getting stateless travel documents.
@@sarowie Can you provide a source for that? "Russia regularly denies do issue documents stating that a person is not a russian citizen." I can't find anything about that.
Merchant sailors have special papers that let them travel around. During COVID, the system broke down and sailors ended up stuck on their ships for months and months.
Not that I'm aware of. I used my UK passport to travel to and from ships, and when turning up in foreign countries. There is a section in the Seaman's book for visa stamps that were used when visiting the Soviet Union, but that hasn't existed for 30 years. There is no special system otherwise. I certainly didn't come across it in the decade I spent working on ships as an EOOW
@@JSmith19858 I think they mean the seaman's discharge book. The first time someone told me they were gonna 'pull out my seaman's discharge' I nearly choked
@@lauraxx8014 you don't use it to travel. There is no special system, and certainly not one that broke down during Covid. People got stuck on ships because they were kept idled and at anchor
The entire History of the Order of Malta is outstanding and goes beyond 900 years nowadays. Interesting to note that after everything - Crusades, heavy cavalry, nation-state, naval warfare, the Great Siege, Napoleon, british dominance etc. - they kind of returned to focus only on their original mission, a Hospitaller duty indeed. Ave Crux Alba.
In the Philippines and Indonesia, Marore and Miangas Residents used a Special Border Pass which is a a version of a passport of Indonesia but only mentioned residents used it for traveling by visiting loved ones from Marore Island to Balut Island
We had a representative from the UN come to our uni and speak about stateless people. They touched on the passports they have to give out and how literally every country bitches about having to issue them 💀
That checks out. I work with an organization that helps refugees in Kenya apply to Western universities and when the students applied for these Conventional Travel Documents (passport) the Kenyan government claimed they were out of the special ink needed to print them. So the UNHCR had to purchase the ink for Kenya
I work for the EU and the Laisser-passez is on the way out. It generally was only issued to those regularly travelling to third countries on official business but these days everyone’s passport looks like an ‘EU passport’ so the Laissez Passer is fairly redundant.
4:10 in April of 1986, my Mother, Grandmother, and Uncle were put in this situation when they gained enough political momentum to flee the totalitarian dictatorship of Nicolae & Elena Ceaușescu. Their Romanian citizenship was revoked and they were given a flimsy paper fed thu a typewriter with their information from their birth certificates and stuff. They gained US citizenship a few years later.
0:36 Okay. I'll just be staring at the blank screen on my phone instead of looking at the computer which I'm supposed to be watching this video on for the next 4 minutes
Did you know that for people where exact date of birth isn’t know but roughly the year is. They’re given a birth date of 00/00/1998 (or whatever year they’re born in). Meaning that their birthday is between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
In these parts it's the first day of the year that is available, which would usuallt be january 1st but could ve pushed several days into january for really popular years.
they are given a year of birth with day and month blank. Causes all kinds of problems. Always had to teach people to not use a date type for date of birth from a passport in software.
My Mongolian passport gets me all the fun little perks most of these passports give, who doesn't love spending some extra time with the airport security.
2:00 "They were gifted the island of Malta by Sicily", only they were gifted the island of Malta by Emperor Charles V, who happened to be king of Sicily and own Malta. Also, they owned Rhodes before, as a sovereign state, and Charles V gave them Malta only once Rhodes had been lost to the Ottomans. They were last remnant of the Crusades at that point, and they, in a way, still are. The reason they didn't stop being a country after Napoleon kicked them out of Malta is twofold: they owned many embassies, charities, hospices and monateries all over Europe, which were not the property of any nation but the Order, and also the Congress of Vienna recognised them as a sovereign entity (but postponed the issue of giving them actual territory because they had enough on their plate with Tsar Alexander trying to duel Metternich and Talleyrand trying to fox his way out of France giving up territory by poking the bear).
Knew a gal with a diplomatic passport. She was the daughter of the Paraguayan ambassador to Spain. She said she rarely used it. If people found out that she was using it to get through security quicker when she wasn't traveling with her dad, she'd be in big trouble. You had to be on official business to invoke it.
My mum is a Swiss diplomat and I had a diplomatic passport until I moved out. We were only allowed to have one passport so I always had only the diplomatic one. It's probably different rules from country to country.
I remeber the news over here in Paraguay a couple of years ago... Some people that had nothing to do with diplomacy or weren't tied to any official state affair were being given diplomatic passports just to be able to pass border controls faster lol, these people were mainly just rich friends of politicians, so probably there is the reasin why your friend wanted to be careful
Fun fact: the building at 4:27 is not any sort of a building related specifically to a national government, but is the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN.
I have a Sovereign Military Order of Malta passport AND a UN passport! They were my dad's when he was doing agricultural advising under UN contract though now they've expired and are just cool knickknacks.
1:50 Without labels to distinguish what both colors mean, I was without luck. Please, add labels on future graphs, World map, etc... Thank you so much for your great videos! I love the contrast between HAI and WP 🙂 Cheers!
In case anyone from the other end of the world who has never heard of Malta is watching: we are now a sovereign country (have been since 1974), and thus, yes we have our internationally-recognised passport which is also proof of citizenship :)
I’ve been a nebula subscriber for almost two years now and have been using it much more frequently since Jet Lag: The Game. I LOVE jet lag, and nebula is hands down the best place to watch it. Plus since I’ve been there more, I’ve discovered lots of other great shows!
Saw this video in my TH-cam feed so went to Nebula to watch it, but it wasn’t there! The ad for Nebula did give me a laugh at the end. I hope the new transcoding stuff is going well!
I think it was originally posted to Nebula a while ago and Sam just forgot to upload to TH-cam at the same time. Looks like he finally realized the mistake and finally uploaded to TH-cam.
You also have various categories of emergency passports. I once had to get out of a country very, very fast and passports were being mailed to and from the passport office when this occurred. It was the least official looking document you have ever seen (as nobody was going back to the embassy to print the good looking one) - so we spent a very long time in the airport while they validated who we were, and got an exception to the normal rules from the local government. For a while it was looking like we would be there until a passport could be sent over in a diplomatic bag, but when the UK suggested that, they let us on a flight. Was a very weird experience - they had to hold us securely - so we had an entire lounge for the two families in this situation - and then we're given the whole upper deck going home. The security people did not trust as at all, and basically watched it's the whole time, but weirdly never went through the normal scanners/pat down.
Venezuela has a passport extension of 2 years which is a sticker on an expirated passport. Something unique as far as I know. Reason being due to the increase bureaucratic process of issuing a new passport that could take years.
And that's no longer valid anywhere outside Central / South America as modern passports require a programmable chip with the passport info and persons biometrics. The chips are WORM (write once read many) so can't be updated. The sticker may be accepted by neighbouring countries but it absolutely won't be accepted by any major countries outside Central / South America.
The alien's passport in Latvia and Estonia, which is very widespread (like 1 person in 10) actually has some advantages over the respective national passports (namely being able to travel to Russia and Belarus visa-free, as well as still enjoying freedom of movement within the EU), and obviously also drawbacks (for example not being able to vote or work in some fields). The reason it's so widespread is that they didn't give Latvian/Estonian nationality to people who had emigrated there during Soviet times and did not speak Latvian/Estonian at independence, which concerned a good quarter of the population in both countries back then. Nowadays, many people who live in Latvia and Estonia since birth without the nationality never asked the national passport either because they only speak Russian (usually) and cannot/don't want to learn the national language, as they can live very well speaking just Russian anyways, or either because they now have the advantage to be able to visit relatives in Russia and Belarus without needing a visa.
Apparently the vatican city passports are issued by the catholic church instead of the vatican city itself. It can be disputed if that is gubernamental passport or not, but there you have the fun fact!
There are separate Vatican City and Holy See passports, the former primarily for personal passports for citizens of the Vatican who do not need a service passport for their work in the Church and the latter for any person in service to the Holy See regardless of their citizenship status. But since they're both (I would assume) issued by the Pope who is both Monarch of Vatican City and Bishop of Rome it doesn't make as much of a material difference day-to-day.
A suburb in my city created their own novelty passport in the 90s, but one person actually used it to travel as a citizen of the “Republic of Hout Bay”
As a World Bank staffer, which is not part of the UN but is sort of a sister organization, I also traveled on a UN blue laissez-passer, although I also had to carry my US passport to get back into the US.
It is also possible to buy passports for countries that no longer exist or regions, such as say Prussia, Ceylon or Transylvania. Some travellers use them in case of a terrorist event, so they present their correct passport at customs, but will give the fake one to a terrorist hijacking a plane. eg Sometimes have a US passport might cause a little upset, but the hijackers may be more forgiving to a native of Abyssinia. Former names are helpful as they are slightly more believeable and can be googled.
@@tommyd3813 Would a inexistent country passport be considered by law a fake passport? I mean, its note pretending to copy a valid document, you could say It IS Just a souvenir
2:50 actually, the word « passport » comme from the French « passeport », short for « passer le port » witch means something like « going through a port » So nah, we just say « passeport », to us a « laisser passer » is more like a document that allow you to go into a restricted area
A Laissez-passer is also issued as temporary passport when you want to travel but either don't have a valid passport or if you "lost" it (a.k.a. I left it at home, but saying that will get my trip cancelled). At least here in the Netherlands you can get one, and I still have one (expired) laying around. They are usually only valid for the one journey and a very limited time, and they aren't exactly free either. As far as I know they are accepted by most countries, as they are official Government documents. But, they are temporary passport issued by the government of the country, so I guess they wouldn't count for this video. Also: passports from the Netherlands (and probably other kingdoms) are still issues in name of the King (by the foreign affairs ministry)
Also, I notice that the ICRC wasn't mentioned. They issue both "Emergency" passports (similar to Alien passports but not tied to a government) as well as travel documents to senior members travelling on assignments.
I am with my Taiwan passport and some countries in the world are still not recognizing it. Instead of issue a visa tagged on the passport page they will give me a permit paper.
The World Citizen Passport deserve mention though it has been criticized for being crap, some found where a small sprinkling of Countries acknowledge it.
@halfasinteresting I would like to see the extended version of this video. Here are some questions that can help you make it longer: What are the countries citizens who can travel not with passport as we know it, but rather with something we will recognize as an ID card/booklet? Which countries have never expiring passport or long dates of expiration? Also which countries doesn't provide new passport for their citizens abroad, even if the passport expires, and just 'extend' it? (Or maybe just a list of countries that don't provide a new passport service at their embassies/consulates and forces citizens to return home to apply for the new passport) Is alien passport is kinda those passport of non-nationals given to Russians born(or stayed after soviet union collapse) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? Also UN was giving some blue passports to refugees at some point I believe. And is there something like Nansen passport nowadays?
> Is alien passport is kinda those passport of non-nationals given to Russians born(or stayed after soviet union collapse) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? Yeah, the middle one in the picture in the video 4:23 is an Estonian Alien's Passport, for example.
My mum is “stateless” which is sad. She was born in Venezuela to Italian immigrants in a year where jus solis didn’t apply (supposedly) to the children of immigrants. She’s now in her 60s and can’t get a passport from neither country. She’s owned a passport before and travelled internationally, she was later told that it was a mistake and was taken from her when she tried to renew it. Oddly enough me and my sister are both Italian and Venezuelan.
Bit of topic but stil a fun passport experience to share: As someone who worked on passport software I had to go to the UK every 3 weeks for a day to visit a customer. I travelled by overnight ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich most of the time. No hotel needed, travel while you sleep, more relaxed etc. Being a regular, the UK Border-Force knew my by sight and the one of the border force supervisor also knows what I do for a living. So one day there was a new trainee set loose to interview incoming travellers. The supervisor stood behind him and winked... When he asked what I came for I answered: checking passports. Not an answer he expected, a bit confused he let me through after some more questions. If you were that trainee read this, sorry, you have to blame your supervisor 😁😂. I was happy to catch the train to Manningtree with 3 minutes to spare. A joyful way to start the day.
I work a a major airport and a colleague of mine actually talked to someone with a laissez passer passport. I myself have met one diploma up until now but I've only worked there a very short time.
In relation to this Order of Malta "no territory, but still a country and still passports" thing: During the Soviet occupation between WWII and 1991 the Republic of Estonia did not control any territory, but since the occupation was never recognized by the Western Allies and because Estonia continued to have embassies in major Western capitals Estonia continued to issue Estonian passports all through the Cold War era and it was possible to travel internationally with them (though not in the Eastern Bloc, for obvious reasons)! :)
@@My_Old_YT_Account Yes. These were recognized as the same thing as regaining independence was basically treated as continuing that same state, just now with an actual territory again.
The US also has a red passport. Diplomatic staff usually have them. You can also have more than 1 issued by the US. I had two when I was a defense contractor since I had to travel to areas that would flag me as a high risk individual if used going anywhere besides those areas.
you can't legally kill someone with immunity, you just can't be prosecuted for it (possibly only during you're tenure unless it was part of the job) but it's always illegal
Yep. Depending on the country and their laws, you can absolutely be detained, questioned, and deported with your passport revoked. And of course if the country you are from doesn't want to stand behind your actions, they could tell the country you're in to go ahead and do whatever they want with you.
@@wingracer1614there are some differences between state organ immunity (privilege of the state itself not the natural person) and diplomatic immunity (has its own convention) but either way you're mostly right. but if for example you are a high-ranking Russian government official who regularly has to travel internationally as part of the job and you are abroad as part of a state sponsored campaign in a war and engage in illegal acts like murder on behalf of the government, state organ immunity might mean you can never actually individually be held accountable bc no outside court has jurisdiction for that (domestic courts don't care, not part of the ICC, foreign states restricted by immunity etc) and your actions can just be seen as Russia's (which is much better for victims bc states usually have more cash than individuals) it leads to a situation where the crimes you commit are like super illegal but you personally might actually never end up being held criminally accountable if your domestic courts don't care.
@@amaziahofjudah9722 Agreed. My point was that it doesn't mean the country you are in can't detain and question you, then deport you while revoking your diplomatic immunity. I don't remember the specifics but I recall some Saudi prince getting kicked out of the country for a long streak of ass-hattery he had been involved in for years. Then there is your example. Say that Russian diplomat did all kinds of things that Putin either did not approve of, or that Putin did approve of but did not want to be held responsible for. He could tell the country holding him that he was not acting under my authority and you are free to prosecute him any way you like. That's pretty rare but I'm sure it has happened a time or two.
The red UN passport is so rare that most border people doesn't even know this exists and will 100% pull you out of the queue for additional questions.
@Flash bang are you a bot
Now that is ironic.
Ye
You may raise some interest, but mostly because they will want to show it to others because of the rarity.
Which makes it an even better excuse to talk about how you work for the UN
Once I arrived with my EU Laissez-Passer at the UK border and the new border guard didn't know what it was. His training supervisor said to him. "Laissez-Passer is French and means 'let him pass' ... so let him pass." To be fair though, most of the time my EU-LP is completely new to the border guards, even within the EU.
I need to make a "donnez-moi un million de euros" document. The supervisor can say, "that's French for 'give him a million bucks' so give him a million bucks" :)
How to have Laissez Passer passport?
@@funkygawy *Donnez-moi un million d'euros
Aren't there customs/border lines for diplomats? Did they have training with the more weird ones, or was it still far outside what is normally seen?
It really depends on the country. many countries there are diplomatic lines, but even in Washington DC a "real" dedicated diplomatic line only exists since 2019. In countries where you need a visa as a diplomat it's easy, they only care if you have a diplomatic visa in your passport, in countries with an agreement for visa-free travel for diplomats its more tricky. For example, theoretically China and Japan accept the EU laissez-passer without a visa, but in practice it is not on the list of valid documents that the border agents have, so always good to have a back-up national passport with you...
My father worked for the World Bank, and had a Laissez-passer UN passport, as well as a US Passport. He was considered a diplomat when traveling on business, arranging for billion dollar loans to countries, but he could not use it for pleasure travel.
how would anyone know he was traveling for business or pleasure?
@@andii256 Interrogate with thumb screws? Just ask? IT's just one of those things that you are supposed or not supposed to do. And most pleasure travel would be with family.
@aroundsundown generally when travelling on official business you have a "note verbal". However most still use it for personal reasons
You can use it for leisure only when you re enter the country where you work (if it’s not yours) when you’ve been abroad.
And you need a paper that say that yes you need to be in this country to work for the UN. Elsewhere, you are not supposed to use it in a border control.
But if you’re driving like a shit, yes you can use it 🤫
Question anyone with a diplomatic passport violates international law good luck with that
There’s a good story about the Iran Hostage crisis and Canada issuing passports to the captured Americans. Rare act of closed parliament to issue them in secret.
I want a video on this topic.
One of the few times you ever want a democracy to have closed parliament/courts is this type of thing!
@@Auzgames aye!
Ye
There’s a really cool movie on this
This was a very interesting watch as a passport control officer. We all like an incredibly rare passport.
Whats the rarest one youve seen?
isn't it a problem when you get a rare passport and don't know what to do with it?
@@GPEtana Definitely South Korean. I've seen only three of those and they belonged to members of the same family. It's also the best passport design I've seen to date.
@@jendorei not as big a problem as you would think… those rare passport generally will need a visa… immigration inspectors will look for a visa from their overseas consulate. If that’s not there, there are public websites that an inspector can reference.
@@jendorei Not really. Passports are generally designed similar to each other due to international standarts. If we need to check out security features to make sure we have a database that shows the spesifics of every current passport.
"Laissez-passer" literally just means "Let [me] pass]" 😜
Btw., the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is identical with the medieval crusader order often called the Hospitallers. After they lost the Holy Land, they shifted to other areas, first to Rhodes and then to Malta, always searching for Muslims to fight against. Their full name tells their story: "The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta". So yeah, there is a real Crusader Knight Order who gives out passports and who is an observer in the UN.
A previous HAI episode went into detail about the Sovereign Order of Malta, I'm surprised Sam didn't explicitly call it out. th-cam.com/video/8gYDjWUefI4/w-d-xo.html
@@trimeta It seems that I missed this episode. 😅
Hospitallers have been around longer than most countries.
There are a few actually but they are in a grey area as far as if they are the OG Orders, the Order of Lazarus has a few branches recognized by the UN but does not have a passport and there are a few other Orders of Malta that work with the SMOM that are also UN observers.
Yea they HAVE TO let you pass 😂
"speaking of beating people to death with no legal repercussions, our next subject is the police"
i love these snarky jokes please never stop making them
If you can’t watch a video without bad jokes and flashing colors youre a child
@@null7879 Edit: I just realized I misread your message. I thought you said "with". In that case, it makes more sense now. You're insulting me for complimenting a joke, and implying that I "can't watch a video without it" even though I said nothing of the sort. Still have no idea why you brought up flashing colors though.
@@null7879 dude, let people enjoy things
/slow blinks/
He's a self declared Antifa supporter, Soros-paid (Wendover Production is significantly funded by the Open Society Foundation), intentional felon. It's dsgusting that you'd then go and condone his terrorist behavior
You missed Holy See passports, which are distinct from Vatican City State passports. They're mainly diplomatic and service passports, similar to (but better than and about as rare as) the Sovereign Military Order of Malta passports.
And the Wild Passport. I know that it's legally not a password
Holy see passports is basically Vatican's Diplomatic passport for it's ambassadors and diplomats to UN and other countries. All countries have different type of passport for their diplomats. It's different from civilian passports.
vatican is a country though
@@_vindicator_ but what he is saying is that there is a separate passport issued by the Vatican City (the state) and the Holy See (then office of the pope)
(The king of the Vatican and the Holy See are always the same person though so the distinction is odd)
@@Valiguss yeah now he's saying that coz he edited the comment lol
2:46 Funny 'cause passport is already french for "pass the door", while laissez-passer is more like "you have to let me in"
I just checked and passeport is actually "pass the (sea) port", not the door (although the confusion is very understandable, I might have made the same mistake xd)
In french they don't pronounce the t, so it's port same as in english. The first passports were to allow someone to go on a boat at times when travel was restricted. It was more like what we call today an exit visa. The passport had no value outside of the area under control of the issuer. So it was just a pass to use the port.
@@tonymouannes I know about French pronunciation, I'm French myself xdd
But thanks for the historical explanation
IMAGINE SAYING TO YOUR GIRLFRIEND, PLEASE LAISSEZ PASSER 😂😂😂
I know that's not 100% accurate, but I choose to visualize "laissez-passer" as the "Let me in, LET ME INNNNN!!!" meme
The reason Canada has allowed the Iroquois passport to be used for entry is because by law citizens must be allowed to return unless fleeing law enforcement from a country we have an extradition treaty with.
Yep, but it wouldn't be right to say they used it for entry. They just showed up at border control, were asked where they are really from, and upon realizing they're Canadian citizens their identity was verified in the database and they were allowed entry based on that alone
So this "Iroquois passport" thing was accepted better than a Canadian Citizenship Card with your picture on it, eh? I don't know what to say about that.
@@pamelakennedysztyblewsky2454 i think it‘s the owner not accepting the Canadian citizenship card. Were they supposed to cause an outrage denying indigenous people access to their laand?
Someone needs to tell Australia about that law lol. Aussie citizens were totally locked out during the pandemic, but wasn't the first time. During the Asian Tsunami it blew my mind that Australia sent so many officials overseas to reissue passports/visas to allow Aussies who lost them in the tsunami to travel home.
Insane! They should have just thrown anyone who said they were an Aussie onto a plane headed for Australia & dealt with identifying them once they landed (could have done a lot of the work on route too in reality) & anyone who wasn't actually an Aussie could have just been showered, fed & watered, clothed, given medical care & held at the airport until they contacted friends or family or authorities in their real country to get identity documents to fly home to their real country.
Australia also likes to strip citizenship from any duel citizen who breaks the law, causing some tension with NZ after sending to NZ people who came to Australia as babies but had duel citizenship due to actually being born in NZ to NZ in their 20's & 30's, cause of them breaking the law in Australia. NZ was understandably not impressed!
I had a friend some years ago btw who had only 1 stamp on their passport, an Australian one! They had gone skiing in NZ & NZ doesn't require passports for Aussies to travel there, so he hadn't got a NZ stamp in it, only the Aussie stamp that he got due to requiring an Aussie passport to be allowed to re-enter Australia. We really could learn a thing or 2 from Canada & NZ!
@@mehere8038 Well, the law in question is The Constitution Act, 1982, Part 1 (The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms), Section 6 (Mobility Rights) laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html#h-44 I couldn't find a comparable section in the Australian Constitution.
I assumed whenever an Interpol agent needed to go to a foreign country they would just walk outside and wait for a rope with a harness attached to fall next to them.
They would attach the harness to themself very quickly and the helicopter would hoist them up and start flying as fast as it could to the mission.
Or maybe that was a Jason Bourne movie
E
Wow stupid
In the UK, our passports are officially still issued by the monarch. There’s a little ‘letter’ from the issuing monarch (mostly QE2, but soon KC3) on the inside cover
same here in the Netherlands. however it's not like the monarch wrote the paspoort him/her self.
He's just gonna copy the letter from his mom
Good to know that Charles can do something useful for his subjects 😉
The acronym KC3 makes me think of "Krusader Cings 3"
And because our passports are issued by the monarch, the monarch themselves doesn't need a passport to enter other countries.
My passport was issued by a monarch. It says inside: "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary." I suppose my next one will be issued by HIS Britannic Majesty.
Most importantly, it'll be blue! All totally worth it for that. I got my most recent one in between the removal of "European Union" and the colour change. Interstitial!
In commonwealth countries most authority is still ceremonially derived from the monarch. So yeah, the Que... King signs your passport, driver's license, and jail warrant.
I got my new passport today, it still references QEII. It makes sense that they're using up the old stock first.
Its thanks to Top Gear I'm able to remember what's on the inside of a British passport and how it can be used effectively.
@@georgeprout42 ... It may be that you requested it before QE2 passed??
Or not.
Just imagine passport officers going "ooooooh that's a rare passport you've got there. Wanna trade it for this [______] passport I've got here?"
Trading cards, just with much higher potential repercussions
Once I was asked like this, but it wasn't a passport officer.
I’ve had 3 different types of US Passports….blue (tourist passport), red (govt/official passport), and black (diplomatic passport). On more than one occasion, when traveling with the diplomatic passport, customs and immigration officials as well as airline personnel pulled me/my family out of line to bring us to the front of the line to expedite us through the process…whether it was entering or departing a country or waiting to board a plane. This occurred in several European and African countries, but never in the US. Transiting through Morocco a couple of times, immigration officials rushed us off to a special VIP room in the airport terminal to relax and we were served tea and some snacks as we had a couple of hours of layover before the next flight. The officials told us that someone would retrieve us and take us directly to the gate for boarding. As a Sergeant First Class/ E-7 in the US Army (on embassy duty in another country), at the time, traveling with my wife and three children, all under 8 years old, I felt like royalty.
here's the attention you ordered 😐👍
That’s pretty cool
Were you treated as well with the official passport?
@@jeon5108 No. Similar experience as with a tourist passport when traveling commercial. Traveling on military aircraft, however, someone would collect all of our official passports and get them stamped---we didn't need to go through immigration/customs in the airport terminal.
@@herisrunsshut up
Mariners also use Seaman's books or Seaman Service Books (SSB). These are official records of mariner employment on ships involved in international voyages. These books looks exactly like passports and can be used for mariner repatriation in case of losing national passport. So they are valid travel documents but only for getting back to your home country and for traveling being employed on ship (and staying in ports worldwide).
While my country Singapore 🇸🇬 has been issuing red passports for travel since independence, they also used to issue a blue "restricted" passport that was only for travel to neighboring Malaysia 🇲🇾 and no other countries. Only a few thousand people held that passport and it kinda expired in 1999. Ever since then, the only valid Singaporean passport is the red one even when entering Malaysia 🇲🇾.
I also heard that non-Malaysian citizens need a passport to travel between west/peninsular Malaysia & east Malaysia (which is autonomous)?
@@lzh4950 yes, you're right.
It's all in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
It's similar to how the US has in addition to a standard passport, a passport card, which is credit-card sized and shaped to fit in your wallet. It only lets you travel by air within the US, and by land or sea to certain countries in North America (mainly Canada and Mexico). It's a lot cheaper and easier to get than a proper full-size passport, but the limited usability is a major catch
I felt so seen when you mentioned stateless people cause that's me! I have a lebanese travel document cause my grandparents had to leave palestine for Lebanon when u know what happened.
That travel document has been a big and bleak portion of my life thus far. All the opportunities I lost and things I couldn't pursue or even try because of my shit travel document. It hurts a lot when you work hard for something and get told no at the last step, because of a thing that's out of your hand and was predetermined for you before your parents were even born 💔.
Get a citizenship and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Excuses are a sign of poor character. You had two generations to deal with this shit.
@@B3Band did you not read what I said about working hard for something to be stripped away from me at the end because of my travel document?
I doubt you are palestanian (stateless) with a lebanese travel document. Because you'll know how impossible it is to even get a 30 day visa to a country, let alone a citizenship. You're telling me to get a citizenship when im not even allowed to enter my own country (palestine) nor many more around the world.
Also, If you don't know, most countries around the world unlike Europe and North America don't give you a citizenship no matter how long you stay in the country.
And finally, those were not excuses, doesn't seem like you know what an excuse is. I've tried many things and worked hard, yet I still get rejected cause of my travel document. I didn't say uve given up in my comment and I haven't.
So tell me, where did you get the audacity to comment this when you clearly have no idea what being stateless and having a travel document from a falling apart, 3rd world country means? You don't know where I am in life right now, and I honestly don't think it worth my time to tell you all the things I've done the last 5 years of my life.
@@B3Band all this without even mentioning the financial burden. Cause u know more than half of Lebanon is living under poverty rn, they definitely have money to leave
What's a "Palestine"?
@@jonahs92 Its probably some tourist attraction of Israel
Fun(?) Fact: At 00:20, the top left document was issued by the Hungarian Embassy in Kiev, for someone by the name of Oksana.
Although realistically it is probably just a sample passport.
It's not a passport. It's a schengen visa.
Pretty certain they're all Ukrainian passports with different visas. 1 says nationality UKR, 2 has the Hungarian embassy in Kiev stamp, 3 has Ukrainian cyrillic, and 4 has a stamp from Hurghada, which gets a lot of tourists from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
@@RusNad Also the Interpol passport mentions Ukrainian name Svitlana
@@RusNadope, only the top right is (upside-down особливі відмітки means special notes). Bottom left is definetly not ukrainian - wrong colors (its plain white with national monument like cathedral in the background, holders signature and authority in bottom right and 🔱 Україна 🔱 Ukraine 🔱 at the top )
I was watching this video on my PC, so had to stare blankly at my phone on my desk.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I dont get it
@@Tenjooo 0:36
First to issue a comment not issued by governments
@John Wick Thank you for explaining a comment that is not a question
I see spam bots have gotten new catchphrases and are even more annoying.
The thumbnail has a HAI passport that’s purple with a yellow H and the words are written in the Star Wars language. I don’t think that one can be used to travel anywhere, but I love the attention to detail and the little jokes.
Thanks a lot. I knew I wasn't the only one wondering about this
i thought it was hebrew...
I can vouch for the non-limited edition Smurf (UN) Passport. Back in '96 my Uncle was doing work on behalf of the Smurfs helping to develop Namibia's fishing industry (which involved a fight with South Africa to get there but that's another story), when my family was visiting we all planned a trip driving down to Cape town. My family on NZ and Australian Passports cross the border fine but my Uncle could not bring his children into South Africa. They had been born in Kiribati and so had Kiribati Passports which were not recognised in SA. There's a chance in the not-long-after-Apartheid era that it just had not been rubber stamped yet but in any case they were denied entry because of the legacy of racism and I hope this issue is fixed now (in recognising Kiribati Passports). ANYWAYS, we spend a night in a camp (ok, old Army barracks) on the Namibian side all very sad. Then in the night my Uncle remembered his Smurf Passport which immediate family can also travel on. South African border guards: the next day : "Sorry about that Mr Clark..."
I love this story. Don't wanna take my regular passport? Here's my trump passport, lays down blue book! 😀
very interesting story.
Kiribati literally has less than 200k people TODAY
I doubt it was higher before and I highly doubt it was due to racism, in a pre-internet world verifying that such a small country exists would be difficult.
Jordan also issues "Temporary" Jordanian passports, that function pretty much the same way normal Jordanian passports do, they only issue them for Palestinian non-citizens if they get security clearance.
Estonia and Latvia have a non-citezen passport, for those who have been born in the country prior to 1991 but have no recorded relatives living there pre 1940.
These are also called alien passports and somehow the EU is chill enough with it to let these guys be a part of the Union. Why do they meet the criteria of being a member while say Bosnia and Herzegovina doesn't? I can't answer that
Aren't Jordans Palestinians since 97% of Jordan people are descendents of Palestinians
@@Cerg1998
A country doesn't "meet the criteria".
A country accepts the list of things they have to do in order to join.
Some countries refuse to do certain things on that list.
@@Cerg1998 Bosnia is a territory still under UN-protectorate. The highest executive power lies with the High Representative of the United Nations for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at the time is Mr. Christian Schmidt. The UN is willing to hand over full souveranity to the Bosnian officials, if the three ethnic groups can agree on a common government, which they cannot. So this temporary status keeps going on for years now. De facto Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a full souverain country by that.
@@ekesandras1481 hmm, interesting, I wonder why I've never heard about that, despite googling it. Thanks.
3:00 reminds me of being an Information Officer in a by-election. In our name tag sleeves (which hung around our necks on a string) we kept a yellow piece of paper which was what officially appointed us to work for Elections Canada. I recall at least one occasion where someone questioned my authority and so I flipped my name badge around and said something about the paper (I can't remember exactly what I said) meant I was appointed to work for the federal government. Not the same level as the UN obviously but that "bragging right" was great.
These passports are still probably more powerful than the North Korean passport
@John Wick go away
@@bababababababa6124 Just report for spam and move on, dont waste thought on bots
The NK Passport is actually not the worst passport.
@@unknownperson3691 Well, what is?
Do they even have passports in north Korea? I mean they are not allowed to leave the country anyways...
I've just gotta tell you about the Republic of Houtbay passport. Houtbay is a fishing village close to Cape Town, South Africa. Access is via one of three mountain passes, so it's this cute little self contained area. The local Lions and Rotary clubs decided to "declare" the Republic of Houtbay, and then invented a passport for said republic. They used to set up "border checkpoints" on the entry roads, and demand to see passports, and then offer to sell citizenship and passports to the "republic". All in good jest and all proceeds 100% for charity. But word on the street is that some people have actually travelled internationally with the passport, and have entry and exit stamps to prove it 🙂
Sounds like the Conch Republic in Key West, Florida...
It's a micronation there's 40K+ of them in existence
@@AndrewAMartin Those actually worked so well they stopped selling them a while back :D
Is it by any chance white people area? Just curious
@@neilnelson7603 That doesn't matter.
I know a guy who works for UNICEF, he has 2 blue UN passports. As far as I'm aware, they are both permanent. One is for most jobs, and the other is for when he has to go to Israel, because they wont let him in if it has an arab Visa sticked into it.
First I was angry that you showed Malta when saying "places that aren't actually countries"... Then I was thrilled when you described the SMOM passport.
Yeah national insecurity yikes. Obviously people are talking about the Order of Malata and not the British dependency of Malta.
@@WhenInDarknessSeekTheLight British dependency?
Insecure lol
@@josephschembri4811i believe its a synonym for crown depenedency
@@josephschembri4811 it's bait, he's misclassifying the country as a dependency on purpose to fuck with you
3:16 this is one hell of a transition
Hong Kong have our own passport, but we got 2 different nationalities using 1 passport. Majority are Chinese nationality, but some of the people are holding stateless nationality Hong Kong passport. Usually are south Asian origin, they born in Hong Kong, have Hong Hong citizenship. But, Hong Kong gov is under Chinese gov, the Chinese gov doesn’t recognise them as Chinese nationality.
Also, some countries in the world recognise Hong Kong have a country status, in the arrival card, if we wrote Chinese instead of Hong Kong, we may got into trouble.
Some Hong Kongers also hold the British National (Overseas) passport originally given out back when HK was still ruled by the UK, & has been used by some to migrate to the UK, but 1 of my friends believe that that passport would've expired once HK returned to China from the UK in 1997. Otherwise the country her family has migrated to would force her to give up her BN(O) passport as it'd be considered a form of dual citizenship (together with the passport of the country she migrated to), which that country doesn't recognize
@@lzh4950it still can be given out today, you just have to have been born in HK before it was handed over
Just curious, are those stateless Hong Kong passports work exactly the same way as Hong Kong passports with Chinese nationality except for entering Mainland China (mean that people who hold those passports are allowed the same visa-free entries to countries that exempt visa for HK citizens and go through the same procedure to apply for a visa to enter countries that do require a visa for HK citizens to enter)?
When Latvia regained independence in 1991, it issued citizen passports to everyone with Latvian ancestry and alien passports to everyone else. So if you were born in Latvia in 1990, lived your entire life there, speak Latvian fluently, but your parents aren't Latvians, then you are an alien and need to pass a naturalization test to get the real passport. There are currently still around 200000 people with alien passports in Latvia.
I believe that when you do speak fluently Latvian, your chances of getting naturalised are quite considerable, though. It's mostly people who don't speak Latvian who are still just 'aliens'.
I mean, if you were in that situation wouldn't the naturalisation test be very easy?
Also how does it work for the Schengen area, are they considered Latvian by other countries?
@@My_Old_YT_Account
For someone who speak Latvian, the test is easy. For those who don't, they'd need to spend a few months to learn enough to pass it. The test is fair, it's passable for anyone who can put in the effort.
Alien passport holders can travel to Schengen Area without a visa, but unlike citizens, they can't stay there permanently or work there without a permit. On the other hand, they are allowed to travel to Russia without a visa, while citizens can't.
Basically, those people have an unique legal status and aren't treated like anyone else.
@@My_Old_YT_Account Citizenship is the very right of each EU-Member State.
If a country says that they are aliens, not citizens, then they are aliens.
But the alien passport can be seen as a residency permit and that may be transferable within the EU.
Note that an alien passport (statelessnes) is not the worst situation.
Russia regularly denies do issue documents stating that a person is not a russian citizen.
Russia even denies to issue a document that they deny a statement.
The result is "unknown citizenship" and blocks people from naturalizing and getting stateless travel documents.
@@sarowie Can you provide a source for that?
"Russia regularly denies do issue documents stating that a person is not a russian citizen."
I can't find anything about that.
Merchant sailors have special papers that let them travel around. During COVID, the system broke down and sailors ended up stuck on their ships for months and months.
Not that I'm aware of. I used my UK passport to travel to and from ships, and when turning up in foreign countries. There is a section in the Seaman's book for visa stamps that were used when visiting the Soviet Union, but that hasn't existed for 30 years.
There is no special system otherwise. I certainly didn't come across it in the decade I spent working on ships as an EOOW
@@JSmith19858 I think they mean the seaman's discharge book. The first time someone told me they were gonna 'pull out my seaman's discharge' I nearly choked
@@lauraxx8014 you don't use it to travel. There is no special system, and certainly not one that broke down during Covid. People got stuck on ships because they were kept idled and at anchor
The entire History of the Order of Malta is outstanding and goes beyond 900 years nowadays. Interesting to note that after everything - Crusades, heavy cavalry, nation-state, naval warfare, the Great Siege, Napoleon, british dominance etc. - they kind of returned to focus only on their original mission, a Hospitaller duty indeed. Ave Crux Alba.
In the Philippines and Indonesia, Marore and Miangas Residents used a Special Border Pass which is a a version of a passport of Indonesia but only mentioned residents used it for traveling by visiting loved ones from Marore Island to Balut Island
5:42 "big names like David Attenborough and Sam from Wendover" lol fair play
Hahaha
We had a representative from the UN come to our uni and speak about stateless people. They touched on the passports they have to give out and how literally every country bitches about having to issue them 💀
That checks out. I work with an organization that helps refugees in Kenya apply to Western universities and when the students applied for these Conventional Travel Documents (passport) the Kenyan government claimed they were out of the special ink needed to print them. So the UNHCR had to purchase the ink for Kenya
@@oliviasadler5579 I met with some reps from the UNCHR a couple weeks ago in Geneva. They deal with so much shit from everyone it’s insane.
@@Ryanraguseo What about what the UN did to Kenyan women on 2014?
Serikali yeti ina mchezo😢(Google translate what I said)@@oliviasadler5579
I work for the EU and the Laisser-passez is on the way out. It generally was only issued to those regularly travelling to third countries on official business but these days everyone’s passport looks like an ‘EU passport’ so the Laissez Passer is fairly redundant.
I don't know how I'm supposed to watch the video if I'm staring at my phone
4:10 in April of 1986, my Mother, Grandmother, and Uncle were put in this situation when they gained enough political momentum to flee the totalitarian dictatorship of Nicolae & Elena Ceaușescu.
Their Romanian citizenship was revoked and they were given a flimsy paper fed thu a typewriter with their information from their birth certificates and stuff.
They gained US citizenship a few years later.
They received a UN Laissez-Passer. The ones issued until 1975 were printed forms that were filled in with a pen - handwritten.
0:36 Okay. I'll just be staring at the blank screen on my phone instead of looking at the computer which I'm supposed to be watching this video on for the next 4 minutes
Did you know that for people where exact date of birth isn’t know but roughly the year is. They’re given a birth date of 00/00/1998 (or whatever year they’re born in).
Meaning that their birthday is between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Normally it will mostly just set to either 1.1. or whatever the civil servant decides what he wants to fill in.
In these parts it's the first day of the year that is available, which would usuallt be january 1st but could ve pushed several days into january for really popular years.
Here in Germany it's XX.
So it would be XX.XX.1998
In my family we have some, but instead they're at 1st of July
they are given a year of birth with day and month blank. Causes all kinds of problems. Always had to teach people to not use a date type for date of birth from a passport in software.
Omg. I didn’t know this was Sam and Adam making these videos - this is so interesting especially the stateless documents.
My Mongolian passport gets me all the fun little perks most of these passports give, who doesn't love spending some extra time with the airport security.
I’m sorry dude, that sucks
2:00 "They were gifted the island of Malta by Sicily", only they were gifted the island of Malta by Emperor Charles V, who happened to be king of Sicily and own Malta. Also, they owned Rhodes before, as a sovereign state, and Charles V gave them Malta only once Rhodes had been lost to the Ottomans. They were last remnant of the Crusades at that point, and they, in a way, still are.
The reason they didn't stop being a country after Napoleon kicked them out of Malta is twofold: they owned many embassies, charities, hospices and monateries all over Europe, which were not the property of any nation but the Order, and also the Congress of Vienna recognised them as a sovereign entity (but postponed the issue of giving them actual territory because they had enough on their plate with Tsar Alexander trying to duel Metternich and Talleyrand trying to fox his way out of France giving up territory by poking the bear).
As someone watching on my PC I am not sure how staring at my phone will help me with absorbing the information in this video any better :D
I had a Star Wars one when I was a kid. The stamps were Bespin, Degobah (who stamped that one?), Tatooine...
3:17 "Speaking of beating people to death with no legal repercussions, our next subject is the police."
10/10, no notes.
Aw man I was really hoping that passport in the thumbnail written in Aurebesh was real. Now I want a passport written in Aurebesh 😂
The Emperor does not issue passports to non-Imps
Aurebesh? I thought it was Ithkuil.
Love that you put a vid of Malta at 0:50 when your talking about nations that aren’t countries
Knew a gal with a diplomatic passport. She was the daughter of the Paraguayan ambassador to Spain. She said she rarely used it. If people found out that she was using it to get through security quicker when she wasn't traveling with her dad, she'd be in big trouble. You had to be on official business to invoke it.
My mum is a Swiss diplomat and I had a diplomatic passport until I moved out. We were only allowed to have one passport so I always had only the diplomatic one. It's probably different rules from country to country.
Someone I went to school with had a US black diplomatic passport and I was very jealous. They were the dependent of US ambassadors.
I remeber the news over here in Paraguay a couple of years ago... Some people that had nothing to do with diplomacy or weren't tied to any official state affair were being given diplomatic passports just to be able to pass border controls faster lol, these people were mainly just rich friends of politicians, so probably there is the reasin why your friend wanted to be careful
SPEAKING OF BEATING PEOPLE TO DEATH WITH NO LEGAL REPURCUSSIONS
dude has no chill whatsoever I love it
Fun fact: the building at 4:27 is not any sort of a building related specifically to a national government, but is the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN.
I have a Sovereign Military Order of Malta passport AND a UN passport! They were my dad's when he was doing agricultural advising under UN contract though now they've expired and are just cool knickknacks.
1:50 Without labels to distinguish what both colors mean, I was without luck.
Please, add labels on future graphs, World map, etc...
Thank you so much for your great videos!
I love the contrast between HAI and WP 🙂
Cheers!
In case anyone from the other end of the world who has never heard of Malta is watching: we are now a sovereign country (have been since 1974), and thus, yes we have our internationally-recognised passport which is also proof of citizenship :)
02:52: That waggling the finger is the exact sign I use to tell my deaf collie: "No."
I’ve been a nebula subscriber for almost two years now and have been using it much more frequently since Jet Lag: The Game. I LOVE jet lag, and nebula is hands down the best place to watch it. Plus since I’ve been there more, I’ve discovered lots of other great shows!
Saw this video in my TH-cam feed so went to Nebula to watch it, but it wasn’t there! The ad for Nebula did give me a laugh at the end. I hope the new transcoding stuff is going well!
I think it was originally posted to Nebula a while ago and Sam just forgot to upload to TH-cam at the same time. Looks like he finally realized the mistake and finally uploaded to TH-cam.
You also have various categories of emergency passports.
I once had to get out of a country very, very fast and passports were being mailed to and from the passport office when this occurred.
It was the least official looking document you have ever seen (as nobody was going back to the embassy to print the good looking one) - so we spent a very long time in the airport while they validated who we were, and got an exception to the normal rules from the local government. For a while it was looking like we would be there until a passport could be sent over in a diplomatic bag, but when the UK suggested that, they let us on a flight.
Was a very weird experience - they had to hold us securely - so we had an entire lounge for the two families in this situation - and then we're given the whole upper deck going home. The security people did not trust as at all, and basically watched it's the whole time, but weirdly never went through the normal scanners/pat down.
Venezuela has a passport extension of 2 years which is a sticker on an expirated passport. Something unique as far as I know. Reason being due to the increase bureaucratic process of issuing a new passport that could take years.
And that's no longer valid anywhere outside Central / South America as modern passports require a programmable chip with the passport info and persons biometrics. The chips are WORM (write once read many) so can't be updated. The sticker may be accepted by neighbouring countries but it absolutely won't be accepted by any major countries outside Central / South America.
The alien's passport in Latvia and Estonia, which is very widespread (like 1 person in 10) actually has some advantages over the respective national passports (namely being able to travel to Russia and Belarus visa-free, as well as still enjoying freedom of movement within the EU), and obviously also drawbacks (for example not being able to vote or work in some fields). The reason it's so widespread is that they didn't give Latvian/Estonian nationality to people who had emigrated there during Soviet times and did not speak Latvian/Estonian at independence, which concerned a good quarter of the population in both countries back then. Nowadays, many people who live in Latvia and Estonia since birth without the nationality never asked the national passport either because they only speak Russian (usually) and cannot/don't want to learn the national language, as they can live very well speaking just Russian anyways, or either because they now have the advantage to be able to visit relatives in Russia and Belarus without needing a visa.
Apparently the vatican city passports are issued by the catholic church instead of the vatican city itself. It can be disputed if that is gubernamental passport or not, but there you have the fun fact!
There are separate Vatican City and Holy See passports, the former primarily for personal passports for citizens of the Vatican who do not need a service passport for their work in the Church and the latter for any person in service to the Holy See regardless of their citizenship status. But since they're both (I would assume) issued by the Pope who is both Monarch of Vatican City and Bishop of Rome it doesn't make as much of a material difference day-to-day.
@@kevinreilly51 oohh, I thought all were Holy See passports 🤔🤔 thanks for the info!
I’ve heard about passports issued by the Red Cross after WW II. Are they still issuing passport now?
A suburb in my city created their own novelty passport in the 90s, but one person actually used it to travel as a citizen of the “Republic of Hout Bay”
As a World Bank staffer, which is not part of the UN but is sort of a sister organization, I also traveled on a UN blue laissez-passer, although I also had to carry my US passport to get back into the US.
1:15 And, yes, Canada, despite the best efforts of Canada.
"immunity to border control inspections"
What??? Considering the rampant criminality throughout the UN this is insane!!
I bought a Scottish Passport for only 6 GBP at the official Scottish border in Gretna Green. And it's valid everywhere in the world:)
It is also possible to buy passports for countries that no longer exist or regions, such as say Prussia, Ceylon or Transylvania. Some travellers use them in case of a terrorist event, so they present their correct passport at customs, but will give the fake one to a terrorist hijacking a plane. eg Sometimes have a US passport might cause a little upset, but the hijackers may be more forgiving to a native of Abyssinia. Former names are helpful as they are slightly more believeable and can be googled.
Although it is illegal in the US to carry a false passport through a airport
@@tommyd3813 Would a inexistent country passport be considered by law a fake passport? I mean, its note pretending to copy a valid document, you could say It IS Just a souvenir
Wasn't this video released on Nebula a few weeks ago?
What’s the purple passport in the thumbnail? I didn’t see it in the video
It's made-up
What about the APEC travel card? That would be an interesting half as interesting video
Sam name dropping 3 of his channels and saying that he's one of the greats of documentaries.
"Speaking of beating people to death with no repercussions, our next subject is the police" wow, what a segway
I saw the Aurebesh passport in the thumbnail and got hooked
2:50 actually, the word « passport » comme from the French « passeport », short for « passer le port » witch means something like « going through a port »
So nah, we just say « passeport », to us a « laisser passer » is more like a document that allow you to go into a restricted area
1:30 there were incidents with the "World Passport" where they were lazy and didn't notice
A Laissez-passer is also issued as temporary passport when you want to travel but either don't have a valid passport or if you "lost" it (a.k.a. I left it at home, but saying that will get my trip cancelled). At least here in the Netherlands you can get one, and I still have one (expired) laying around.
They are usually only valid for the one journey and a very limited time, and they aren't exactly free either. As far as I know they are accepted by most countries, as they are official Government documents. But, they are temporary passport issued by the government of the country, so I guess they wouldn't count for this video.
Also: passports from the Netherlands (and probably other kingdoms) are still issues in name of the King (by the foreign affairs ministry)
Great Video. Way mor information than I expected.
I thought this might cover “passports” issued by places like the Conch Republic (Key West, FL, USA)
Also, I notice that the ICRC wasn't mentioned. They issue both "Emergency" passports (similar to Alien passports but not tied to a government) as well as travel documents to senior members travelling on assignments.
I am with my Taiwan passport and some countries in the world are still not recognizing it. Instead of issue a visa tagged on the passport page they will give me a permit paper.
Great video as always :3
The World Citizen Passport deserve mention though it has been criticized for being crap, some found where a small sprinkling of Countries acknowledge it.
@halfasinteresting I would like to see the extended version of this video. Here are some questions that can help you make it longer:
What are the countries citizens who can travel not with passport as we know it, but rather with something we will recognize as an ID card/booklet?
Which countries have never expiring passport or long dates of expiration?
Also which countries doesn't provide new passport for their citizens abroad, even if the passport expires, and just 'extend' it? (Or maybe just a list of countries that don't provide a new passport service at their embassies/consulates and forces citizens to return home to apply for the new passport)
Is alien passport is kinda those passport of non-nationals given to Russians born(or stayed after soviet union collapse) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?
Also UN was giving some blue passports to refugees at some point I believe.
And is there something like Nansen passport nowadays?
> Is alien passport is kinda those passport of non-nationals given to Russians born(or stayed after soviet union collapse) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?
Yeah, the middle one in the picture in the video 4:23 is an Estonian Alien's Passport, for example.
My mum is “stateless” which is sad. She was born in Venezuela to Italian immigrants in a year where jus solis didn’t apply (supposedly) to the children of immigrants. She’s now in her 60s and can’t get a passport from neither country. She’s owned a passport before and travelled internationally, she was later told that it was a mistake and was taken from her when she tried to renew it.
Oddly enough me and my sister are both Italian and Venezuelan.
Lego passport?
@ 4:27 why the picture of Saint-Paul's cathedral in Saint Paul Mn?
Bit of topic but stil a fun passport experience to share: As someone who worked on passport software I had to go to the UK every 3 weeks for a day to visit a customer. I travelled by overnight ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich most of the time. No hotel needed, travel while you sleep, more relaxed etc. Being a regular, the UK Border-Force knew my by sight and the one of the border force supervisor also knows what I do for a living. So one day there was a new trainee set loose to interview incoming travellers. The supervisor stood behind him and winked... When he asked what I came for I answered: checking passports. Not an answer he expected, a bit confused he let me through after some more questions. If you were that trainee read this, sorry, you have to blame your supervisor 😁😂.
I was happy to catch the train to Manningtree with 3 minutes to spare. A joyful way to start the day.
I work a a major airport and a colleague of mine actually talked to someone with a laissez passer passport. I myself have met one diploma up until now but I've only worked there a very short time.
In relation to this Order of Malta "no territory, but still a country and still passports" thing:
During the Soviet occupation between WWII and 1991 the Republic of Estonia did not control any territory, but since the occupation was never recognized by the Western Allies and because Estonia continued to have embassies in major Western capitals Estonia continued to issue Estonian passports all through the Cold War era and it was possible to travel internationally with them (though not in the Eastern Bloc, for obvious reasons)! :)
Once Estonia became independent again, did the people on those passports get switched to the newly independent Estonia ones?
@@My_Old_YT_Account Yes. These were recognized as the same thing as regaining independence was basically treated as continuing that same state, just now with an actual territory again.
There's a punctuation mistake in the subtitles at 5:20; an erroneous apostrophe. Stranger still, he seems to make it make a sound.
I had a Wild Animal Park passport a long time ago.
The order of Malta is not a country, but a knightly order, the descendant of the Hospitaliers. They predate a lot of countries aroubd the world.
I'm 100% sure I have already seen this video. Is this some kind of experiment?
Ah, maybe I've seen it on Nebula.
The US also has a red passport. Diplomatic staff usually have them. You can also have more than 1 issued by the US. I had two when I was a defense contractor since I had to travel to areas that would flag me as a high risk individual if used going anywhere besides those areas.
That red UN passport looks juicy.
My cousin has one of those 1:50, he also has a fancy uniform he sometimes uses
you can't legally kill someone with immunity, you just can't be prosecuted for it (possibly only during you're tenure unless it was part of the job) but it's always illegal
Yep. Depending on the country and their laws, you can absolutely be detained, questioned, and deported with your passport revoked. And of course if the country you are from doesn't want to stand behind your actions, they could tell the country you're in to go ahead and do whatever they want with you.
@@wingracer1614there are some differences between state organ immunity (privilege of the state itself not the natural person) and diplomatic immunity (has its own convention) but either way you're mostly right. but if for example you are a high-ranking Russian government official who regularly has to travel internationally as part of the job and you are abroad as part of a state sponsored campaign in a war and engage in illegal acts like murder on behalf of the government, state organ immunity might mean you can never actually individually be held accountable bc no outside court has jurisdiction for that (domestic courts don't care, not part of the ICC, foreign states restricted by immunity etc) and your actions can just be seen as Russia's (which is much better for victims bc states usually have more cash than individuals) it leads to a situation where the crimes you commit are like super illegal but you personally might actually never end up being held criminally accountable if your domestic courts don't care.
@@amaziahofjudah9722 Agreed. My point was that it doesn't mean the country you are in can't detain and question you, then deport you while revoking your diplomatic immunity. I don't remember the specifics but I recall some Saudi prince getting kicked out of the country for a long streak of ass-hattery he had been involved in for years.
Then there is your example. Say that Russian diplomat did all kinds of things that Putin either did not approve of, or that Putin did approve of but did not want to be held responsible for. He could tell the country holding him that he was not acting under my authority and you are free to prosecute him any way you like. That's pretty rare but I'm sure it has happened a time or two.
@@wingracer1614 Your passport can't be revoked. Instead you are declared unwelcome ie persona non grata.
I'm disappointed you didn't mention the Latvian "non-citizen passport".