13 ms·

Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?

178 points by hiphopyo 10y ago

lb1lf 10y ago
The new passports will not be issued until April 2018. I just realised I'll end up with one of the first ones - my current spare passport expires on March 31st, 2018.
- jeremydavid 10y ago
  You could wait one day to renew it, no?
- BurningFrog 10y ago
  What country is your main passport?
- uiri 10y ago
  More likely you'll end up with one of the last ones. Generally it is good to keep at least 6 months of validity on your passport if you plan on using it. Depending on the country, it might be more difficult to renew it after it has expired than shortly before.
  - HappyTypist 10y ago
    It really depends on the country. The US is perfectly fine with your passport up until the date of expiry, so is Canada, so is many EU countries.
    - ddeck 10y ago
      Be sure to check before traveling. All of the 26 European countries comprising the Schengen area require that U.S. passports are valid for at least 90 days beyond the traveler’s intended date of departure and many assume travellers will stay 3 months, thus requiring 6 month validity. https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm
  - lb1lf 10y ago
    It is not my main passport; I carry a 2nd one (Also issued by my country of origin, Norway) - as I travel a lot for work, one passport may be in some consulate somewhere waiting for a visa while I go somewhere else on the other. However, there's a bit of a calm period in my industry now, so I manage well on only the main passport (which doesn't expire until 2026, I got a new one last year - your 1st passport is issued for ten years, the spare for two.)
  - masklinn 10y ago
    > Depending on the country, it might be more difficult to renew it after it has expired than shortly before. Or it might make no difference whatsoever. I renewed both my passport and my "origin" ID card ~6 months after they expired, through the consulate (though both my country of origin and my country of residence are in the EU). There was no issue whatsoever renewing them (I did cut it a bit short as I realised my passport was expired 2 weeks before leaving the EU for holidays, but the passport took under a week to renew and reach the consulate).
carlob 10y ago
(2014)
TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
It's a distinctive, minimalist design, for sure. Hopefully it's still as usable as before. Though ICAO passport specifications mean designers probably aren't given enough rope to hang themselves.
cantrevealname 10y ago
I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your home country with your passport. Pretty much at every secure border crossing, they're going to use your passport number to pull up absolutely every bit of info that appears in your passport, including your photo, plus a lot more info from the home country's computers. The passport serves at most as a "something you have" security token. They already have your photo, so the only case where the physical passport helps is avoiding impersonation by someone closely resembling you. (2) You're traveling to a foreign country that needs a visa. In that case, you will have submitted a ton of information, including your photo, to the foreign country in advance to get the visa. When you arrive at the foreign country, it's just like case (1) above. (3) You're traveling to a foreign country that doesn't need a visa from citizens of your home country. In this case, the proof you need is that you are a citizen of that country. It is likely that the two countries have exchanged a mass of information to make the visa-free travel possible, or they can share the info about visitors in real time as they arrive. It's really the edge cases that the physical passport helps. Like obscure border crossings where they don't have an electronic feed, or very third-world countries, or as a recognizable document to show to hotels/banks/airlines within a foreign country. By the way, I'm not saying that this is a good development. In fact, it's a terrible loss of privacy and furthering of worldwide surveillance. But it seems to be the trend, like the elimination of cash.
- DasIch 10y ago
  Your from a country in which privacy isn't particularly valued I take it? I think you're heavily overestimating how much data is available to governments.
  - prodmerc 10y ago
    Why? I've seen such a system in action - based on the passport number, they pull up a digital copy of that passport, including the information on it and photo, as well as the list of dates when you traveled in/out of the country. Each country definitely has something like this for their own citizens, and within the EU this information is shared (probably quite freely) between frontier agents and the police. A driver's license from the Netherlands can quickly be checked for authenticity/validity in Germany for example... They don't need that much data, just photo and name, ID numbers, maybe the registered address(es). Based on that, if you have any criminal history, you can bet they'll see it anywhere as it is priority information.
moomin 10y ago
I find it hilarious that the related articles includes this: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/nov/05/design-blunders-of-the-new-uk-passport-a-very-british-mess https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design... , which basically details how the UK government has managed to make an utter mess of the same exact design space.
- Inconel 10y ago
  Wow, those look awful. The subtitle "Why must the UK passport look like a clumsy photocopied moodboard? is an apt description.
- smcl 10y ago
  We seem to have a knack for including portrait drawings that look like a bad DeviantArt fan-art. That Shakespeare picture is pretty goofy, and the Clydesdale Bank 20 GBP note has a particularly awful depiction of Robert The Bruce, for example: http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestnews/20front.jpg http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestne...
zoom6628 10y ago
All cred to Norway for doing their part to make a passport something usable and something a citizen can show with pride. However not a patch on current New Zealand passport design. Everywhere i take mine out for use i get comments about how cool and yet elegant it looks - inside and out.
- helloworld 10y ago
  Your comment made me curious about the design of New Zealand passports, which eventually led me to this atlas of passport covers: https://www.passportindex.org/ https://www.passportindex.org/ Here's New Zealand's distinctive design: https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png But I prefer the elegant minimalism from Switzerland: https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png De gustibus non est disputandum. :-)
  - prodmerc 10y ago
    Ugh EU passports look so bad with that butt ugly bordeaux color :D
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Beautiful passports make me wish I could collect citizenships.
pdog 10y ago
What does it take to become a citizen of Norway? Asking for a friend.
Inconel 10y ago
Along the same lines as this new passport here are some cool design proposals from Metric[1] and Snohetta[2] for Norway's new banknotes. And a couple of concepts from US based designers[3][4] for US currency designs. [1]http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-bank http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-bank [2]http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-norway39s-new-banknotes http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-norway3... [3]http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-proposal http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-proposal [4]http://tyznik.com/currency/ http://tyznik.com/currency/ Edit: I thought Travis Purrington was US based but he is actually Zurich based.
- laxd 10y ago
  You omitted the best proposal. Link to wayback machine since the images does'nt seem to resolve on original site anymore. https://web.archive.org/web/20150518212006/http://buzzit.no/burde-dette-blitt-norges-nye-1000-lapp https://web.archive.org/web/20150518212006/http://buzzit.no/... Edit: Saturday-night-whisky spelling mistake.
  - Inconel 10y ago
    Those are great, I've never seen them before. I can't decide whether I like the 500 or the 1000 krone note more. Edit: Here's an additional concept for the British Pound that I forgot to add to my above post.[1] [1]http://www.travispurrington.com/-2022-british-pound-concept http://www.travispurrington.com/-2022-british-pound-concept
    - stordoff 10y ago
      The GBP notes are an interesting set of designs, but I wish I could see versions that used the current colour scheme (the linked designs mistakenly(?) use green/blue tones for £10 and orange/brown tones for £5, which is the opposite way round to all existing notes. £20 and £50 more accurately match the current notes).
      - Inconel 10y ago
charlesdm 10y ago
I seriously love the design of this passport. Well done to the company that designed those.
zaatar 10y ago
What is the difference between an "immigrant passport" and a "standard passport" ? Are naturalized citizens of Norway not equal to natural citizens of Norway?
- h4nkoslo 10y ago
  They are for legal residents without the ability to get proper documents from their home countries. My guess is primarily "refugees" that haven't gone through the full citizenship process. https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-and-travel-document/ https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-and-...
  - zaatar 10y ago
    Got it, thanks, in hindsight, I should have googled it myself. I've never seen a refugee travel document / refugee passport be called an "immigrant passport" before, but that's cool, and more importantly, it's great to see Norway hasn't created a "second class citizen" category, and that all citizens are truly equal, at least from a Passport/Documentation perspective.
drxerious 10y ago
I like the design, although they do remind me a bit of the little Kate Spade notebooks and accessories you find at upmarket department stores..
seanmcdirmid 10y ago
These are so cool! How do I get one? American passports are so drab in comparison. Another nice passport design is Swiss, but that shouldn't be surprising.
- knz 10y ago
  The new US ones aren't too bad (nice pictures and quotes in them) but they are definitely very traditional. My family has a mix of American and New Zealand passports and the US on looks a little boring compared to the kiwi ones!
- Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  In my case? I accidentally fell in love with a Norwegian some years back. If I have my date and time stuff correct, I should be able to apply to get one in late summer/early autumn. Of course, the path to that stuff also includes language learning and civics and all that stuff too.
grkvlt 10y ago
Not as cool as Finland, though. Their passport design features a moose on each page, which doubles as a flip-book animation of it walking! See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI
- grkvlt 10y ago
  I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting under UV light [0] and this Hungarian EUR 20 note is inspired, with UV light showing the skeletal structure of the pictured bird [1] but sadly its just a mock-up from a final-year project by a design student... [0] http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP [1] http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/barbara-bernat-hungarian-paper-money-designboom-14.jpg http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/barbara...
  - masklinn 10y ago
    > I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting under UV light The article notes that under UV light the pages of the new/future norwegian passport switch from day view to "northern lights" night view. The first two pictures in TFA are the same page viewed under normal light and UV.
- dingaling 10y ago
  Well before that, the Slovenian passport had a man on horseback galloping along the outside edges. You can see the blue icon in a couple of positions here: http://www.twenty.si/uploads/pics/Licul.6_01.jpg http://www.twenty.si/uploads/pics/Licul.6_01.jpg Much easier to spot removed pages than with the subtle Finnish design.
mrmondo 10y ago
That is truly wonderful design, I'm genuinely drawn to it and quite envious, until now I thought the current New Zealand passport was quite pleasant - http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-mighty-new-zealand-passport-everything-you-need-to-know http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-migh...
thewhitetulip 10y ago
If I am not wrong, Chinese passports are also similar beautiful design and different pages show different things under UV light.
- masklinn 10y ago
  The canadian passport has apparently used UV-reactive ink since at least 2003: http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP contrasts the "old" canadian passport's UV pages to the "new" one's, the new one (biometric/ePassport) was introduced in 2013, the previous one was introduced in 2003.
microcolonel 10y ago
I have to say, when I got my U.S. passport I found it striking. My Canadian passport is pretty bland even though it has the same format (backdrop image and a quote).
gumby 10y ago
Interesting that the pass just has Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) and English -- no French. Is French no longer the Lingua Franka? My kid's German passport still has German / English / French and my Australian one is still English / French. I've used French in some weird remote corners of the world where English didn't work.
- chmars 10y ago
  French hasn't been the been the modern lingua franca for some time, it's obviously English (well, actually many variants of English) now. The ICAO still recommends to issue passports in English and French _or_ in the national language plus English or French although using the national language(s) plus English and French is still common in Europe. European Union passports even use all official EU languages as far as I know (I cannot check right now).
  - Symbiote 10y ago
    EU passports use all the languages, but only via a page with translations for each field. My British one has English and French on the data page, and a number to look up the translation. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568_passportbiographicpage.jpg http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568...
  - gumby 10y ago
    Just looked at a few around the house: - Australian: English/French for the photo page, page for restrictions, and the contact info. All the rest (bit where the GG requests in the queen's name (!) that you be allowed to travel, advice if you get arrested on drugs charges (!!) etc is in English - USA: English/French/Spanish for name, address and other meta info. Advice on not violating ag rules etc in English. Request for free entry also trilingual - German: "German Passport", number of pages, other meta info in all EU languages; name, etc in German / English / French. No request for free passage, no advice about being arrested.
CalRobert 10y ago
A thread relevant to this discussion - why do we require passports? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909
masklinn 10y ago
Needs a [2014] tag: > Monday 17 November 2014 15.29 GMT > Last modified on Monday 17 November 2014 18.40 GMT
kwhitefoot 10y ago
This story is from 2014. And also the ID card is just a proposal, I've been living here for over thirty years and I have never heard of a Norwegian having an ID card.

178 points by hiphopyo 10y ago

lb1lf 10y ago

The new passports will not be issued until April 2018. I just realised I'll end up with one of the first ones - my current spare passport expires on March 31st, 2018.

jeremydavid 10y ago
You could wait one day to renew it, no?
BurningFrog 10y ago
What country is your main passport?
uiri 10y ago
More likely you'll end up with one of the last ones. Generally it is good to keep at least 6 months of validity on your passport if you plan on using it. Depending on the country, it might be more difficult to renew it after it has expired than shortly before.
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  It really depends on the country. The US is perfectly fine with your passport up until the date of expiry, so is Canada, so is many EU countries.
  - ddeck 10y ago
    Be sure to check before traveling. All of the 26 European countries comprising the Schengen area require that U.S. passports are valid for at least 90 days beyond the traveler’s intended date of departure and many assume travellers will stay 3 months, thus requiring 6 month validity. https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm
- lb1lf 10y ago
  It is not my main passport; I carry a 2nd one (Also issued by my country of origin, Norway) - as I travel a lot for work, one passport may be in some consulate somewhere waiting for a visa while I go somewhere else on the other. However, there's a bit of a calm period in my industry now, so I manage well on only the main passport (which doesn't expire until 2026, I got a new one last year - your 1st passport is issued for ten years, the spare for two.)
- masklinn 10y ago
  > Depending on the country, it might be more difficult to renew it after it has expired than shortly before. Or it might make no difference whatsoever. I renewed both my passport and my "origin" ID card ~6 months after they expired, through the consulate (though both my country of origin and my country of residence are in the EU). There was no issue whatsoever renewing them (I did cut it a bit short as I realised my passport was expired 2 weeks before leaving the EU for holidays, but the passport took under a week to renew and reach the consulate).

carlob 10y ago

(2014)

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago

It's a distinctive, minimalist design, for sure. Hopefully it's still as usable as before. Though ICAO passport specifications mean designers probably aren't given enough rope to hang themselves.

cantrevealname 10y ago

I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your home country with your passport. Pretty much at every secure border crossing, they're going to use your passport number to pull up absolutely every bit of info that appears in your passport, including your photo, plus a lot more info from the home country's computers. The passport serves at most as a "something you have" security token. They already have your photo, so the only case where the physical passport helps is avoiding impersonation by someone closely resembling you. (2) You're traveling to a foreign country that needs a visa. In that case, you will have submitted a ton of information, including your photo, to the foreign country in advance to get the visa. When you arrive at the foreign country, it's just like case (1) above. (3) You're traveling to a foreign country that doesn't need a visa from citizens of your home country. In this case, the proof you need is that you are a citizen of that country. It is likely that the two countries have exchanged a mass of information to make the visa-free travel possible, or they can share the info about visitors in real time as they arrive. It's really the edge cases that the physical passport helps. Like obscure border crossings where they don't have an electronic feed, or very third-world countries, or as a recognizable document to show to hotels/banks/airlines within a foreign country. By the way, I'm not saying that this is a good development. In fact, it's a terrible loss of privacy and furthering of worldwide surveillance. But it seems to be the trend, like the elimination of cash.

DasIch 10y ago
Your from a country in which privacy isn't particularly valued I take it? I think you're heavily overestimating how much data is available to governments.
- prodmerc 10y ago
  Why? I've seen such a system in action - based on the passport number, they pull up a digital copy of that passport, including the information on it and photo, as well as the list of dates when you traveled in/out of the country. Each country definitely has something like this for their own citizens, and within the EU this information is shared (probably quite freely) between frontier agents and the police. A driver's license from the Netherlands can quickly be checked for authenticity/validity in Germany for example... They don't need that much data, just photo and name, ID numbers, maybe the registered address(es). Based on that, if you have any criminal history, you can bet they'll see it anywhere as it is priority information.

moomin 10y ago

I find it hilarious that the related articles includes this: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/nov/05/design-blunders-of-the-new-uk-passport-a-very-british-mess https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design... , which basically details how the UK government has managed to make an utter mess of the same exact design space.

Inconel 10y ago
Wow, those look awful. The subtitle "Why must the UK passport look like a clumsy photocopied moodboard? is an apt description.
smcl 10y ago
We seem to have a knack for including portrait drawings that look like a bad DeviantArt fan-art. That Shakespeare picture is pretty goofy, and the Clydesdale Bank 20 GBP note has a particularly awful depiction of Robert The Bruce, for example: http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestnews/20front.jpg http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestne...

zoom6628 10y ago

All cred to Norway for doing their part to make a passport something usable and something a citizen can show with pride. However not a patch on current New Zealand passport design. Everywhere i take mine out for use i get comments about how cool and yet elegant it looks - inside and out.

helloworld 10y ago
Your comment made me curious about the design of New Zealand passports, which eventually led me to this atlas of passport covers: https://www.passportindex.org/ https://www.passportindex.org/ Here's New Zealand's distinctive design: https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png But I prefer the elegant minimalism from Switzerland: https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png De gustibus non est disputandum. :-)
- prodmerc 10y ago
  Ugh EU passports look so bad with that butt ugly bordeaux color :D
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Beautiful passports make me wish I could collect citizenships.

pdog 10y ago

What does it take to become a citizen of Norway? Asking for a friend.

Inconel 10y ago

Along the same lines as this new passport here are some cool design proposals from Metric[1] and Snohetta[2] for Norway's new banknotes. And a couple of concepts from US based designers[3][4] for US currency designs. [1]http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-bank http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-bank [2]http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-norway39s-new-banknotes http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-norway3... [3]http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-proposal http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-proposal [4]http://tyznik.com/currency/ http://tyznik.com/currency/ Edit: I thought Travis Purrington was US based but he is actually Zurich based.

laxd 10y ago
You omitted the best proposal. Link to wayback machine since the images does'nt seem to resolve on original site anymore. https://web.archive.org/web/20150518212006/http://buzzit.no/burde-dette-blitt-norges-nye-1000-lapp https://web.archive.org/web/20150518212006/http://buzzit.no/... Edit: Saturday-night-whisky spelling mistake.
- Inconel 10y ago
  Those are great, I've never seen them before. I can't decide whether I like the 500 or the 1000 krone note more. Edit: Here's an additional concept for the British Pound that I forgot to add to my above post.[1] [1]http://www.travispurrington.com/-2022-british-pound-concept http://www.travispurrington.com/-2022-british-pound-concept
  - stordoff 10y ago
    The GBP notes are an interesting set of designs, but I wish I could see versions that used the current colour scheme (the linked designs mistakenly(?) use green/blue tones for £10 and orange/brown tones for £5, which is the opposite way round to all existing notes. £20 and £50 more accurately match the current notes).
    - Inconel 10y ago

charlesdm 10y ago

I seriously love the design of this passport. Well done to the company that designed those.

zaatar 10y ago

What is the difference between an "immigrant passport" and a "standard passport" ? Are naturalized citizens of Norway not equal to natural citizens of Norway?

h4nkoslo 10y ago
They are for legal residents without the ability to get proper documents from their home countries. My guess is primarily "refugees" that haven't gone through the full citizenship process. https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-and-travel-document/ https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-and-...
- zaatar 10y ago
  Got it, thanks, in hindsight, I should have googled it myself. I've never seen a refugee travel document / refugee passport be called an "immigrant passport" before, but that's cool, and more importantly, it's great to see Norway hasn't created a "second class citizen" category, and that all citizens are truly equal, at least from a Passport/Documentation perspective.

drxerious 10y ago

I like the design, although they do remind me a bit of the little Kate Spade notebooks and accessories you find at upmarket department stores..

seanmcdirmid 10y ago

These are so cool! How do I get one? American passports are so drab in comparison. Another nice passport design is Swiss, but that shouldn't be surprising.

knz 10y ago
The new US ones aren't too bad (nice pictures and quotes in them) but they are definitely very traditional. My family has a mix of American and New Zealand passports and the US on looks a little boring compared to the kiwi ones!
Broken_Hippo 10y ago
In my case? I accidentally fell in love with a Norwegian some years back. If I have my date and time stuff correct, I should be able to apply to get one in late summer/early autumn. Of course, the path to that stuff also includes language learning and civics and all that stuff too.

grkvlt 10y ago

Not as cool as Finland, though. Their passport design features a moose on each page, which doubles as a flip-book animation of it walking! See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI

grkvlt 10y ago
I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting under UV light [0] and this Hungarian EUR 20 note is inspired, with UV light showing the skeletal structure of the pictured bird [1] but sadly its just a mock-up from a final-year project by a design student... [0] http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP [1] http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/barbara-bernat-hungarian-paper-money-designboom-14.jpg http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/barbara...
- masklinn 10y ago
  > I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting under UV light The article notes that under UV light the pages of the new/future norwegian passport switch from day view to "northern lights" night view. The first two pictures in TFA are the same page viewed under normal light and UV.
dingaling 10y ago
Well before that, the Slovenian passport had a man on horseback galloping along the outside edges. You can see the blue icon in a couple of positions here: http://www.twenty.si/uploads/pics/Licul.6_01.jpg http://www.twenty.si/uploads/pics/Licul.6_01.jpg Much easier to spot removed pages than with the subtle Finnish design.

mrmondo 10y ago

That is truly wonderful design, I'm genuinely drawn to it and quite envious, until now I thought the current New Zealand passport was quite pleasant - http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-mighty-new-zealand-passport-everything-you-need-to-know http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-migh...

thewhitetulip 10y ago

If I am not wrong, Chinese passports are also similar beautiful design and different pages show different things under UV light.

masklinn 10y ago
The canadian passport has apparently used UV-reactive ink since at least 2003: http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP contrasts the "old" canadian passport's UV pages to the "new" one's, the new one (biometric/ePassport) was introduced in 2013, the previous one was introduced in 2003.

microcolonel 10y ago

I have to say, when I got my U.S. passport I found it striking. My Canadian passport is pretty bland even though it has the same format (backdrop image and a quote).

gumby 10y ago

Interesting that the pass just has Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) and English -- no French. Is French no longer the Lingua Franka? My kid's German passport still has German / English / French and my Australian one is still English / French. I've used French in some weird remote corners of the world where English didn't work.

chmars 10y ago
French hasn't been the been the modern lingua franca for some time, it's obviously English (well, actually many variants of English) now. The ICAO still recommends to issue passports in English and French _or_ in the national language plus English or French although using the national language(s) plus English and French is still common in Europe. European Union passports even use all official EU languages as far as I know (I cannot check right now).
- Symbiote 10y ago
  EU passports use all the languages, but only via a page with translations for each field. My British one has English and French on the data page, and a number to look up the translation. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568_passportbiographicpage.jpg http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568...
- gumby 10y ago
  Just looked at a few around the house: - Australian: English/French for the photo page, page for restrictions, and the contact info. All the rest (bit where the GG requests in the queen's name (!) that you be allowed to travel, advice if you get arrested on drugs charges (!!) etc is in English - USA: English/French/Spanish for name, address and other meta info. Advice on not violating ag rules etc in English. Request for free entry also trilingual - German: "German Passport", number of pages, other meta info in all EU languages; name, etc in German / English / French. No request for free passage, no advice about being arrested.

CalRobert 10y ago

A thread relevant to this discussion - why do we require passports? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909

masklinn 10y ago

Needs a [2014] tag: > Monday 17 November 2014 15.29 GMT > Last modified on Monday 17 November 2014 18.40 GMT

kwhitefoot 10y ago

This story is from 2014. And also the ID card is just a proposal, I've been living here for over thirty years and I have never heard of a Norwegian having an ID card.