# passport colors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [June 26, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615 "2000-06-26T20:22:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@madd1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madd1)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/1 "2000-06-26T20:22:59Z")
Passport colors
Blue passports were issued to military personnel on covert assignments in foreign countries as recently as 1993. I know this through personal experience. I have no idea if this can be found out officialy. Nevertheless, it’s just my 2cents.
Link to Mailbag: [How come some U.S. passports are different colors?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpassport.html)
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2000, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/2 "2000-06-26T20:27:22Z")
Erm…wouldn’t a distinctively coloured passport spoil the whole point of “covert operations”?
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/3 "2000-06-26T20:37:18Z")
My current passport is green, but my two previous ones - issued when I was a dependent of a retired USA officer - were blue. My sister’s most recent one is blue (and she’s not a dependent). I think the blue is just the normal, no-special-circumstances color for everyone, covert military or otherwise.
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### Author:  [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2000, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/4 "2000-06-27T02:15:01Z")
I thought the State and Defense departments were moving away from color-coded passports after a couple of hijackings in which U.S. military personnel were singled out. Anyone with more info?
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### Author:  [@Luchetti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luchetti)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/5 "2000-06-27T02:40:11Z")
I had a black passport while assigned to Saudi Arabia in the USAF. I never got any extra peanuts on the airplane, or anything else special either. Except that(at the big airports that had them, like atlanta) I was able to use the diplomatic/crew line at customs, which was always way shorter.
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### Author:  [@kiffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiffa)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passport-colors/23615/6 "2000-06-27T15:38:44Z")
I’ve travelled on all three with little difference except for:
\> Paris on a black passport: The security guard couldn’t figure out whether my family and I were “on the black list”
or terrorists or what. He kept on asking what nationality we were [clearly American with our accented French, kids in Detroit/LA/Atlanta Tshirts, me with headphones] and why we had arabic in our passports. We were posted to Khartoum Sudan at the time.
\> Paris again: We arrived in the int’l section and had a multiple hour wait. I exited on my black passport and decided to use my blue as we were about to get on the plane. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that it had expired… Madam how did you enter the country - with your approval on my black passport of course.
\> Cameroun: Red passport with a gazillion extensions stamped, sealed and delivered at the back of the passport. As luck would have it, extensions were printed in English and altho Cameroun is bi-lingual, this guy did not understand English. He thought I was travelling on an expired passport.
So, according to my experience, it is not the color of the passport that makes any difference - it’s the idiots [including me] who can’t read or think.
Additional thought: the only passport that I have seen which causes continual problems is the light blue UN passport/laissez-passer.