3 ms·

Just a small personal anecdote from another country with tight restrictions: When I rented a furnished apartment in Saigon back in 2008, there was an ethernet

Just a small personal anecdote from another country with tight restrictions: When I rented a furnished apartment in Saigon back in 2008, there was an ethernet cable on the table and a piece of paper in English that said "Do not visit websites of anti-government propaganda, or pornography, or news such as the New York Times." Naturally, as the police held my passport for the entire year I was in Vietnam, I was cautious. But after a few days, I just went ahead and openly browsed the NYT for a few minutes. My internet was shut off for about 3 hours. The next time I did it, it was shut off for 24 hours, and then I knew it wasn't a glitch. It wasn't exactly immediate, either; it took a few minutes. I was pretty sure there was a semi-dedicated person assigned to watch my traffic. That wasn't over a VPN. I wanted them to see my traffic. But I knew running over a VPN would just raise suspicion. When I opened up VPNs to check email after that, I did it from cafes, and I did it in short spurts.

pdntspa 3y ago
Wait, the police held your passport? Why?
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - mjhay 3y ago
    Ah, so just like the US then!
    - sixothree 3y ago
      Zip code depending of course.
      - mjhay 3y ago
        Good point.
      - noduerme 3y ago
        Actually, it's mostly down to how you address them.
  - noduerme 3y ago
    Police in America don't control residents. Most of the time they can't even control themselves.
    - vkou 3y ago
      They control unwanted residents, and unarmed[1] protesters. [1] They prefer not to fuck with the armed ones.
    - CamperBob2 3y ago
      Police in America don't control residents. How was your nap, Mr. Van Winkle? 2020 wasn't a great year in the US. You were better off spending it asleep, trust me.
      - noduerme 3y ago
        Don't flatter yourself. Nothing happened in 2020 that hasn't happened a lot worse, a lot more times before in America. If anything, the police were surprisingly ineffectual at protecting the owners' interests. I'll step out and burn a flag all day long in the street. They ain't gonna arrest me. I've seen the police publicly flog random people on the street in Vietnam just for being in their way. What a wonderfully just, equitable socialist paradise. Go check out and live in a country where the police actually control people and get back to me.
        wahnfrieden 3y ago
        [flagged]
- noduerme 3y ago
  If you're an American and you rent an apartment, the local police keep your passport until you leave. You keep a xerox. That's how it was at the time. I don't know if that's still the case. I didn't feel good about it when I found out (actually, the moment I signed the lease), but there was nothing I could do about it. My exit from Vietnam was almost humorous. I had about 50 DVDs in my suitcase, mostly encrypted backups and burned movies, and every single one was inspected by sight, holding it up to the light (to see how far the burn went?), then left on the floor of the airport for me to pick up. Upon re-entering the US, the customs officers did almost the same thing, and then just confiscated all my discs. Weirdly, no one on either side checked my laptop.
  - pdntspa 3y ago
    So how do you travel outside the country then, if the police are holding your passport?
    - noduerme 3y ago
      You need to request it from the police for travel. In my experience, I did it via my landlord, and it took about a day.
  - evilos 3y ago
    They took your DVDs? On what pretext? Did you get them back?
    - noduerme 3y ago
      The pretext was piracy, since some of them were labeled with the names of movies. I protested they should just keep those ones, but they took them all and said I was lucky they weren't going to prosecute me. I didn't even try to get them back.
hinkley 3y ago
In fact, the US Department of State recommends that all US citizens have a photocopy of their passport with them, when traveling abroad. Supposedly you get in shorter lines at the consulate if you have at least a photocopy of your passport available. You should be able to petition the consulate of your home country to issue you a new passport. I think it may be illegal, but I've heard from people who travel to places where it's sketchy for Americans to travel, that they report their passport as destroyed, get a second copy issued, then keep the first one. The reasoning is that certain immigration departments see red flags if they see visa stamps from certain other countries, and you may get grief for having visited them. Cuba and the US used to be one, but cross-border rivalries are another. Knowing who hates who and presenting the right passport to receive the stamp would save you grief. Also if you encounter corruption/extortion you can schedule the next flight out and run. With the electronic ones now I don't know how many places that still works.
- lbschenkel 3y ago
  Reporting the passport lost or stolen is generally not a good idea. Legality issues aside, when a passport is reported lost or stolen then it is marked in the system as invalid. Depending on the country it will be reported to Interpol's STLD database [1] which can be checked by immigration authorities in other countries. In the end you'll have two passports but one of them is now useless and it will be flagged the moment you actually use it for traveling. It may not be pleasant when you're abroad and the authorities catch you using an invalid travel document. I guess it makes more sense if you never intend to use the old passport again for crossing borders? [1] https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Databases/SLTD-database-travel-and-identity-documents https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Databases/SLTD-datab...
- vidarh 3y ago
  Some countries will issue second passports legally exactly for the reasons you list, but you typically need to apply for permission. Replacing your passport early without needing to pretend it's lost because it has stamps from a "problematic" country tends to be easier most places, but of course a hassle if you travel to these countries more than once.
- 3y ago

pdntspa 3y ago

Wait, the police held your passport? Why?

wahnfrieden 3y ago
[flagged]
- mjhay 3y ago
  Ah, so just like the US then!
  - sixothree 3y ago
    Zip code depending of course.
    - mjhay 3y ago
      Good point.
    - noduerme 3y ago
      Actually, it's mostly down to how you address them.
- noduerme 3y ago
  Police in America don't control residents. Most of the time they can't even control themselves.
  - vkou 3y ago
    They control unwanted residents, and unarmed[1] protesters. [1] They prefer not to fuck with the armed ones.
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    Police in America don't control residents. How was your nap, Mr. Van Winkle? 2020 wasn't a great year in the US. You were better off spending it asleep, trust me.
    - noduerme 3y ago
      Don't flatter yourself. Nothing happened in 2020 that hasn't happened a lot worse, a lot more times before in America. If anything, the police were surprisingly ineffectual at protecting the owners' interests. I'll step out and burn a flag all day long in the street. They ain't gonna arrest me. I've seen the police publicly flog random people on the street in Vietnam just for being in their way. What a wonderfully just, equitable socialist paradise. Go check out and live in a country where the police actually control people and get back to me.
      - wahnfrieden 3y ago
        [flagged]
noduerme 3y ago
If you're an American and you rent an apartment, the local police keep your passport until you leave. You keep a xerox. That's how it was at the time. I don't know if that's still the case. I didn't feel good about it when I found out (actually, the moment I signed the lease), but there was nothing I could do about it. My exit from Vietnam was almost humorous. I had about 50 DVDs in my suitcase, mostly encrypted backups and burned movies, and every single one was inspected by sight, holding it up to the light (to see how far the burn went?), then left on the floor of the airport for me to pick up. Upon re-entering the US, the customs officers did almost the same thing, and then just confiscated all my discs. Weirdly, no one on either side checked my laptop.
- pdntspa 3y ago
  So how do you travel outside the country then, if the police are holding your passport?
  - noduerme 3y ago
    You need to request it from the police for travel. In my experience, I did it via my landlord, and it took about a day.
- evilos 3y ago
  They took your DVDs? On what pretext? Did you get them back?
  - noduerme 3y ago
    The pretext was piracy, since some of them were labeled with the names of movies. I protested they should just keep those ones, but they took them all and said I was lucky they weren't going to prosecute me. I didn't even try to get them back.

hinkley 3y ago

In fact, the US Department of State recommends that all US citizens have a photocopy of their passport with them, when traveling abroad. Supposedly you get in shorter lines at the consulate if you have at least a photocopy of your passport available. You should be able to petition the consulate of your home country to issue you a new passport. I think it may be illegal, but I've heard from people who travel to places where it's sketchy for Americans to travel, that they report their passport as destroyed, get a second copy issued, then keep the first one. The reasoning is that certain immigration departments see red flags if they see visa stamps from certain other countries, and you may get grief for having visited them. Cuba and the US used to be one, but cross-border rivalries are another. Knowing who hates who and presenting the right passport to receive the stamp would save you grief. Also if you encounter corruption/extortion you can schedule the next flight out and run. With the electronic ones now I don't know how many places that still works.

lbschenkel 3y ago
Reporting the passport lost or stolen is generally not a good idea. Legality issues aside, when a passport is reported lost or stolen then it is marked in the system as invalid. Depending on the country it will be reported to Interpol's STLD database [1] which can be checked by immigration authorities in other countries. In the end you'll have two passports but one of them is now useless and it will be flagged the moment you actually use it for traveling. It may not be pleasant when you're abroad and the authorities catch you using an invalid travel document. I guess it makes more sense if you never intend to use the old passport again for crossing borders? [1] https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Databases/SLTD-database-travel-and-identity-documents https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Databases/SLTD-datab...
vidarh 3y ago
Some countries will issue second passports legally exactly for the reasons you list, but you typically need to apply for permission. Replacing your passport early without needing to pretend it's lost because it has stamps from a "problematic" country tends to be easier most places, but of course a hassle if you travel to these countries more than once.
3y ago