Have read a couple of books recently in which the (American) characters, in around the 1950s, early 1960s, were travelling in (a) W. Europe and (b) some Arab land, maybe Syria.
The characters, upon arriving in a new town, would swing by the police department and show their passports. Or, in one case, had to leave their passport with the hotel desk clerk (who presumably called the police to report new arrivals – I’ve never had to do more than show my passport to verify identity to the clerk?).
This was related as a routine check-in-with-the-authorities protocol each time one arrived in a new place.
Is this true? If so, where was this the protocol? Did you have to do it even in big cities? Wouldn’t that get unwieldy for the cops, registering 20,000 U.S. tourists a day in, say, Rome? What was the point? When did it stop? And, did a similar regime apply in English-speaking countries?
Back in the day, communication wasn’t as easy as it is now. People travelling might not have any way to contact home for months, and if they didn’t register, nobody would know where they were. You could disappear without a trace.
Registering provides a record of where you’ve been in case just don’t show up somewhere or something. It gives them an idea of where to look for you and who you might be if they find an unidentified foreign body on the street. It lets them know who to contact (including what consulates or embassies might be involved) if something happens. It also provides a record of what foreigners are around in case there is an emergency and evacuations, etc. are called for. Finally, it allows the police to keep an eye on you if you are in a sensitive area or your actions become suspicious. There was less tourist traffic and more international intrigue back then.
In many some countries today, it is recommended that you register with your embassy, especially if you are residing there. I think journalists and the like may also have special requirements. Most countries require you to register for hotels with your passport- complete with a description of where you are coming from and where you are going to. Finally, I’ve been to a few places where I’ve had to register with the police, once because of recent tourist crime and once because something was off about the stamps in my passport.
Let’s see. In Moscow, in 2003 and 2004, I had to register with the police. When I visited England for several months in 1996, I was required to register with the police, as well. So it’s not completely a thing of the past, and not isolated to far-off lands.
Yep, as pulykamell states, it is by no means a thing of the past everywhere. If you’re travelling in remote areas of Africa, say – and especially in small towns or villages – the protocol is to visit the local police station, or other head honcho, on arrival. It lets them know who’s there, which can be beneficial to both parties.
I was in Vietnam for a few weeks recently, and every hotel wanted to hang on to my passport at least long enough to make a xerox copy of it, and in some cases, until I checked out.
I’ve never left the US, so forgive the ignorance, but I was under the impression that you had to keep your passport on your person at all times. Obviously, I’m mistaken here. What is the requirement about maintaining a passport while travelling?
The only times I’ve ever been asked to produce a passport have been at passport control (border, airport, whatever), checking in for a flight somewhere, or at a hotel. Once or twice, I’ve been asked for my passport when exchanging money.
In fact, you’re advised that it’s best to put your passport in the hotel safe, rather than carrying it around with you, since it’s less likely to go missing that way. If you ran into trouble somewhere, and needed to prove your identity, I can’t imagine the authorities anywhere not understanding that your passport was safely locked away at your hotel.
Back in the '70s, I spent a couple of uneasy hours sitting in an East German border post at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin while the VoPo’s did god-knows-what with my passport. Sitting in no-man’s-land without your passport, at the mercy of the border guards, is a bit unnerving!
Hmmm. Obviously I guess much more emphasis would be placed on physical possession of the correct papers in authoritarian regimes. I remember reading a book called Cause For Alarm by Eric Ambler. Our English hero is in Mussolini’s pre-war Italy, and somehow the secret police or his other enemies inveigle his passport out of him, and suddenly he’s in a horrible crisis – not that everything was peachy before that, but the loss of the passport is treated as devestating and basically irremediable. I guess I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just go the the U.K. consulate and get replacement papers.
For those of you who remember – about when do you think the practice of routinely reporting to the authorities (other than customs/immigration, obviously) went out of style in W. Europe?
I went to Russia in 1991 and stayed in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In both cities I had to hand my passport over at the hotel reception desk for some form of “police registration”. Each time the clerks kept my passport for several hours.
This varies wildly depending on where you are and how you’re travelling. It helps to keep in mind that you don’t have all of the rights that you have at home while travelling. I try to hold on to my passport at all times, but sometimes the authorities (completely legit or not) want it for a bit and you hand it over.
Major western-style hotels in big cities in the developing world may have a safe and are likely to let you do what you want with it. A backpackers-level place in the sticks is more likely to want to keep it. I’ve been to places in the middle of the extremes who want to photocopy it. Everyone at least wants your passport # for when the police come around trying to figure out what to do with the body. :eek:
That’s certainly one of the places I’ve been where your passport and you seperate at times.
I’ve also had it disappear into Bureaucracyland for a spell to get a work visa, another foreign visa, while beng detained by the army and so forth.
It’s helpful (well, not really aways , since there’s little that you can do about it) to keep in mind that the police are sometimes a sketchy crew of people that you’d normally want to be protected from and that depending on your situation you may not want to draw their attention to your presence. Showing up at the station with someone respected in the community will go a lot farther than showing up on your own in most cases.
I had to give up a copy of my passport and visa here at work. But I imagine that’s just in case there’s an immigration raid. Yeah, Mexico has it’s own illegal immigration problems, too!
