Travel document


A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international entity pursuant to international agreements to enable individuals to clear border control measures. Travel documents usually assure other governments that the bearer may return to the issuing country, and are often issued in booklet form to allow other governments to place visas as well as entry and exit stamps into them.
The most common travel document is a passport, which usually gives the bearer more privileges like visa-free access to certain countries. While passports issued by governments are the most common variety of travel document, many states and international organisations issue other varieties of travel documents that allow the holder to travel internationally to countries that recognise the documents. For example, stateless persons are not normally issued a national passport, but may be able to obtain a refugee travel document or the earlier "Nansen passport" which enables them to travel to countries which recognise the document, and sometimes to return to the issuing country.
Border control policies typically require travellers to present valid travel documents in order to ascertain their identity, nationality or permanent residence status, and eligibility to enter a given jurisdiction. The most common form of travel document is the passport, a booklet-form identity document issued by national authorities or the governments of certain subnational territories containing an individual's personal information as well as space for the authorities of other jurisdictions to affix stamps, visas, or other permits authorising the bearer to enter, reside, or travel within their territory. Certain jurisdictions permit individuals to clear border controls using identity cards, which typically contain similar personal information.
Different countries impose varying travel document regulations and requirements as part of their border control policies and these may vary based on the traveller's mode of transport. For instance, whilst America does not subject passengers departing by land or most boats to any border control, it does require that passengers departing by air hold a valid passport. Consequently, even though travellers departing America by air might not be required to have a passport to enter a certain country, they will be required to have a valid passport booklet to board their flight in order to satisfy American immigration authorities at departure. Similarly, although several countries outside the European Economic Area accept national identity cards issued by its member states for entry, Sweden and Finland do not permit their citizens to depart for countries outside the EEA using solely their identity cards.
Many countries normally allow entry to holders of passports of other countries, sometimes requiring a visa also to be obtained, but this is not an automatic right. Many other additional conditions may apply, such as not being likely to become a public charge for financial or other reasons, and the holder not having been convicted of a crime. Where a country does not recognise another, or is in dispute with it, it may prohibit the use of their passport for travel to that other country, or may [|prohibit entry] to holders of that other country's passports, and sometimes to others who have, for example, visited the other country. Some individuals are subject to sanctions which deny them entry into particular countries.
Travel documents may be requested in other circumstances to confirm identification such as checking into a hotel or when changing money to a local currency. Passports and other travel documents have an expiry date, after which it is no longer recognised, but it is recommended that a passport is valid for at least six months as many airlines deny boarding to passengers whose passport has a shorter expiry date, even if the destination country may not have such a requirement.

Specifications

Format

Travel documents are typically issued in one of two formats:
  • Booklets: the most common format for travel documents containing one or two pages with the individual information and endorsements from the issuing government as well as a number of additional pages for passport stamps or visas to be affixed
  • Identity cards: a card-sized document containing an individual's identifying information
The ICAO issues standards for both booklet and identity card-format travel documents which are treated as recommendations to national governments. The size of booklet-form travel documents normally complies with the ISO/IEC 7810 ID-3 standard, which specifies a size of. This size is the B7 format. Cards are issued to the ID-1 standard.
  • A standard booklet format travel document includes the cover, which contains the name of the issuing country, a national symbol, a description of the document, and a biometric symbol, if applicable. Inside, there is a title page, also naming the country. A data page follows, containing information about the bearer and the issuing authority. There are blank pages for visas, and to stamp for entries and exit. Passports have numerical or alphanumerical designators assigned by the issuing authority.
  • Machine-readable standards for travel documents have been issued by the ICAO, with an area set aside where most of the information written as text is also printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition.
  • Biometric booklets and cards have an embedded contactless chip in order to conform to ICAO standards. These chips contain data about the passport bearer, a photographic portrait in digital format, and data about the passport itself. Many countries now issue biometric passports, in order to speed up clearance through immigration and the prevention of identity fraud. These reasons are disputed by privacy advocates.

    Immigration stamps

For immigration control, officials of many countries affix entry and exit stamps to booklet format travel documents. Depending on the country, a stamp can serve different purposes. For example, in the United Kingdom, an immigration stamp in a passport includes the formal leave to enter granted to a person subject to entry control. In other countries, a stamp activates or acknowledges the continuing leave conferred in the passport bearer's entry clearance. Under the Schengen system, a foreign travel document is stamped with a date stamp which does not indicate any duration of stay, indicating that the person is deemed to have permission to remain either for three months or for the period shown on his visa if specified otherwise. Member states of the European Union are not permitted to place a stamp in the passport of a person who is not subject to immigration control. Stamping is prohibited because it is an imposition of a control that the person is not subject to. Some travellers "collect" immigration stamps in their travel documents, and will choose to enter or exit countries via different means in order to have different categories of stamps. Some countries, such as Liechtenstein, that do not stamp passports may provide a passport stamp on request for such "memory" purposes. Monaco and Andorra do this as well. These are official stamps issued by government offices.

Passports

In general, a passport is a travel document that also serves as proof of nationality from the issuing country. Although generally accepted by the majority of countries in the world, some issuing countries expressly exclude the validity of passports from nations that are not recognised by their governments.
Governments around the world issue a variety of passports for different purposes. The most common variety are ordinary passports issued to individual citizens and other nationals. In the past, certain countries issued collective passports or family passport. Family passports were typically issued to one passport holder, who may travel alone or with other family members included in the passport. A family member not listed as the passport holder could not use the passport for travel without the passport holder. These passports are essentially obsolete as most countries; including all the EU states, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom; require each traveller to have their own passport. Today, passports are typically issued to individual travellers rather than groups. Aside from ordinary passports issued to citizens by national governments, there are a variety of other types of passports by governments in specific circumstances.

International Certificate of Vaccination

The International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, also known as the Carte Jaune, is an official vaccination report created by the WHO. As a travel document, it is a kind of medical passport that is recognised internationally and may be required for entry to certain countries where there are increased health risks for travellers.
Various schemes for health passports or vaccination certificates have been proposed for people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The IATA Travel Pass application for smart phones, introduced by the International Air Transport Association in early 2021, is a mobile app designed to standardise the health verification process confirming whether aeroplane passengers have been vaccinated against, or tested negative for, COVID-19 prior to travel. The application is intended to eventually replace the Carte Jaune and to facilitate the verification of vaccination for Yellow Fever and other diseases prescribed by border control policies in various countries. Trials of the application are carried out by a number of airlines including Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad and Air New Zealand.
Due to the prevalence of counterfeit certificates in some places, several countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Nigeria, have been developing digital certificates to be used in conjunction with and to authenticate an ICVP. As of July 2019, Nigeria requires its citizens to have its digital "e-Yellow Card" for travel outside the country. The card has a QR code that can be scanned to verify its validity. This requirement does not affect travellers from other countries with valid ICVPs, but those arriving in Nigeria who have not been vaccinated for yellow fever may receive the vaccine and the e-Yellow Card upon arrival.