There was a story a while back about a Pastafarian who got a waver on the ‘no wearing colanders on your head’ rule for passport photographs and in general, religious/culturally important hair coverings are allowed as long as they don’t obscure the face.
So, if you had a strong religious/cultural belief that you should never let someone photograph your face due to soul-stealing, sympathetic magic, pod people etc. Would there be any way to get a passport or travel documents if you really needed to go to another country?
Would a really good drawing or very detailed physical description be acceptable if it were witnessed by a government official?
Would it make any difference if you were a billionaire?
Surprisingly, I can find no provision of Federal law that requires a photo in a U.S. passport: Link.
But State Department regulations require that any agent issuing a passport must certify to the State Department that the photographs provided in the application “are a true likeness,” so your mystery man isn’t going to get very far in an effort to assert that his visage needs to be treated like that of Mohammed. Link.
Further, countries are under no obligation to permit entry to foreign nationals without documentation that meets their requirements, so even if some whacko country starts issuing passports with written descriptions like, “The holder looks like a middle aged Steve Buscemi, except with auburn hair and a slightly more bulbous nose, and eyes that can make a hardened criminal swoon,” it doesn’t mean the passport holder is entitled to enter any other country.
Also, in the U.S., having a claimed religious belief isn’t carte blanche to do anything. Generally, if the government has a good compelling reason for requiring (or disallowing) something (and there’s not a reasonable way to accommodate the religious belief), then the religious have to suck it up and comply. I would guess that having good ID is a compelling interest, so there would be no religious exemption to the photograph requirement.
I think there is a distinction between sovereign head of state and head of a republican state. Her Majesty has no passport, but the President of the U.S. does. (As practical matter, if the President forgot his passport I think he’d have no trouble crossing borders!)
Since the intent of a British passport is a request by Her Majesty to let the bearer pass, it’s logical that it would have no purpose for her — She can ask to pass in person! The U.S. President OTOH is not a sovereign but serves at the pleasure of a Republic.
That’s not true. Private planes still need to go through immigration and customs when they land. Though they’ll often have a special line (or queue, if your plane flies on the left.)
Yes they do. Please read/listen to my link. The filthy rich get waived by for all the usual requirements - passport included. There’s first count report of a finance manager who forgot her passport at home but had no problems traveling internationally.
“HARRINGTON: So this wealth manager and her boss had been summoned to a country outside of Europe by a client who was sending a private plane for them. She showed up at the Zurich airport with her boss waiting for this plane. And she discovered that she’d left her passport back home in a different purse. And she said to her boss, I’ve got to go home and get my passport because we’re leaving Europe. And he said don’t worry about it. And she said again, no, they’re going to check my passport. They won’t let me leave Switzerland, much less enter another country. I’ve got to go home. And he said, no, really, don’t worry about it.
So she didn’t say anything further, figuring, you know, it would be his problem if she got refused the right to leave. Sure enough, the private plane pulls up. They get on it. Nobody checks a passport. It lands in this other country outside Europe. Nobody checks a passport. They get into the private car sent by the client. They’re taken to the client’s home. They have their meeting. Private car takes them back to the private plane. Private plane flies them back to Switzerland. They get off the plane and go home. At no point has anyone encountered passport control or a customs agent. “
I have no doubt at all that certain countries expedite certain visitors, to various degrees. I myself have had entry into some countries (with a passport) that did not involve waiting in your standard line for passport control. Such things are afforded as a courtesy for various reasons, and I have no doubt whatsoever that some people may be afforded an even greater privilege than what I have occasionally enjoyed.
But you’ve asserted something much broader, based on an anonymous source of an unnamed country without any context of the travel – you said the rich don’t need passports, and they bypass “all the usual requirements.”
That could be the case in this particular story if, say, they were invited by the Emir of Qatar for a discussion of investing billions in that country, then the Qatari officials may have simply ignored all the usual rules. But you’ve gone much further in saying that this exception applies generally, to which I agree with the others that you have not established that at all, and there’s considerable evidence to the contrary. One only has to google a few terms to come up with instances where the super-rich have run into problems with international travel:
I flew home from Frankfurt Germany to Boston without a passport and I’m not filthy rich. It can be done for anyone if the conditions are right. Granted, in my case I did go through passport control, but I was allowed to get on the plane in Germany and off in Boston without a passport.
I’m guessing you were traveling on military orders.
This whole story stinks. First of all, Switzerland doesn’t have exit visas, and secondly “this other country” is never actually named. I’m sure there are places in the world where greasing the right palms leads to lax (or non existent) security, but nobody flying into a developed country to conduct legitimate business is getting around immigration just because they have a private jet.
Don’t believe everything you read. I have flown on private aircraft across international borders numerous times, and everytime, our plane has been greeted by the customs and immigration officials of the country where we landed, requesting to see all passengers passports. And in most of those situations I was traveling with one of the most wealthiest persons in the world.
