3 ms·

So most countries probably accepted this passport by accident? By a border guard that was too tired or lazy to take a look, who issued the passport?

by andix 5y ago

Macha 5y ago
Yeah, it used to be the case until a few years ago that the immigration here was run by the police and a lot of them would pretty much just wave you by if you were a white guy in the Irish citizens queue that took out a passport without inspecting it. At the distance some of them looked, pretty sure anything the right shade of red and right shape would have done. Certainly _other_ EU passports would not have been distinguishable from an Irish passport at that level of inspection. Nowadays we have a separate immigration staff and they'll at least look at the passport insides.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  A few months before 9/11 my France -> Switzerland border control on the TGV was a conductor asking our train car "Is anyone not allowed in Switzerland? OK, good." Almost jarring, having gone through US border controls a lot.
  - athenot 5y ago
    That would have been 3 years before they officially became part of the Schengen space.
  - refurb 5y ago
    9/11 changed a lot. Before then it wasn’t unusual for Americans and Canadians who lived close to the border to freely cross without identification if they were recognized by the guard.
    - dathinab 5y ago
      For the "France -> Switzerland" border not much changed, it's still super easy to pass (maybe even easier) due to Schengen space. (Ignoring covid special cases for a moment.) Not all but a lot of border in Schegen space already often (not always) had very lose controls years before Schegen space was established, it was one of many reasons why it was established. I.e. it was doubling down on a already well establish trend.
    - bombcar 5y ago
      Driving across the San Ysidro border in a California-plated car was basically answering "American" to the "Citizenship?" question and "No" to "Anything to declare?" It's a bit more involved now, but not much - they only started requiring passports a few years ago.
  - andix 5y ago
    This used to be very common in Western Europe before the Schengen Agreement was instated. There were practically no person check if you weren’t looking suspicious.
Vespasian 5y ago
Some of the stamps are not even related to imigration at all The German "visa" stamps on [1] are not from the government but from the national train company. The first one seems just to be the office stamp of the service / information desk in the Duisburg main station. The second stamp is hard to read but I think its a train ticket. The other "visa" does not look official either (though I'm not sure how the stamps looked back than. In any case it's not a Visa issued by a German embassy). [1] https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany.jpg https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany.jpg [2] https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany%202007.jpg https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany%202007.jpg

So most countries probably accepted this passport by accident? By a border guard that was too tired or lazy to take a look, who issued the passport?

by andix 5y ago

So most countries probably accepted this passport by accident? By a border guard that was too tired or lazy to take a look, who issued the passport?

Macha 5y ago

Yeah, it used to be the case until a few years ago that the immigration here was run by the police and a lot of them would pretty much just wave you by if you were a white guy in the Irish citizens queue that took out a passport without inspecting it. At the distance some of them looked, pretty sure anything the right shade of red and right shape would have done. Certainly _other_ EU passports would not have been distinguishable from an Irish passport at that level of inspection. Nowadays we have a separate immigration staff and they'll at least look at the passport insides.

ceejayoz 5y ago
A few months before 9/11 my France -> Switzerland border control on the TGV was a conductor asking our train car "Is anyone not allowed in Switzerland? OK, good." Almost jarring, having gone through US border controls a lot.
- athenot 5y ago
  That would have been 3 years before they officially became part of the Schengen space.
- refurb 5y ago
  9/11 changed a lot. Before then it wasn’t unusual for Americans and Canadians who lived close to the border to freely cross without identification if they were recognized by the guard.
  - dathinab 5y ago
    For the "France -> Switzerland" border not much changed, it's still super easy to pass (maybe even easier) due to Schengen space. (Ignoring covid special cases for a moment.) Not all but a lot of border in Schegen space already often (not always) had very lose controls years before Schegen space was established, it was one of many reasons why it was established. I.e. it was doubling down on a already well establish trend.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    Driving across the San Ysidro border in a California-plated car was basically answering "American" to the "Citizenship?" question and "No" to "Anything to declare?" It's a bit more involved now, but not much - they only started requiring passports a few years ago.
- andix 5y ago
  This used to be very common in Western Europe before the Schengen Agreement was instated. There were practically no person check if you weren’t looking suspicious.

Vespasian 5y ago

Some of the stamps are not even related to imigration at all The German "visa" stamps on [1] are not from the government but from the national train company. The first one seems just to be the office stamp of the service / information desk in the Duisburg main station. The second stamp is hard to read but I think its a train ticket. The other "visa" does not look official either (though I'm not sure how the stamps looked back than. In any case it's not a Visa issued by a German embassy). [1] https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany.jpg https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany.jpg [2] https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany%202007.jpg https://worldservice.org/visas/2/Germany%202007.jpg