King Henry V of England is credited with having invented what some consider the first passport in the modern sense, as a means of helping his subjects prove who they were in foreign lands. Communal obligations to provide poor relief were an important source of the desire for controls on movement. The transition from private to state control over movement was an essential aspect of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. On the whole, documents were not required for travel to sea ports, which were considered open trading points, but documents were required to travel inland from sea ports. In medieval Europe, such documents were issued by local authorities to foreign travellers (as opposed to local citizens, as is the modern practice) and generally contained a list of towns and cities the document holder was permitted to enter or pass through. Only people who paid their zakah (for Muslims) or jizya (for dhimmis) taxes were permitted to travel to different regions of the Caliphate thus, the bara'a receipt was a "basic passport." Įtymological sources show that the term "passport" is from a medieval document that was required in order to pass through the gate (or "porte") of a city wall or to pass through a territory. In the medieval Islamic Caliphate, a form of passport was the bara'a, a receipt for taxes paid. Even children needed passports, but those of one year or less who were in their mother's care may not have needed them. These passports ( zhuan) determined a person's ability to move throughout imperial counties and through points of control. They required such details as age, height, and bodily features. Passports were an important part of the Chinese bureaucracy as early as the Western Han (202 BCE-220 CE), if not in the Qin Dynasty. 'Superintendent of Seals') who must issue sealed passes before a person could enter or leave the countryside. Chapter 34 of the Second Book of Arthashastra concerns with the duties of the Mudrādhyakṣa ( lit. 3rd century BCE) make mentions of passes issued at the rate of one masha per pass to enter and exit the country. Nehemiah 2:7–9, dating from approximately 450 BC, states that Nehemiah, an official serving King Artaxerxes I of Persia, asked permission to travel to Judea the king granted leave and gave him a letter "to the governors beyond the river" requesting safe passage for him as he traveled through their lands. One of the earliest known references to paperwork that served in a role similar to that of a passport is found in the Hebrew Bible. 2.6 Passports issued by entities without sovereign territory.2.5.3 Serbian Coordination Directorate Passports in Kosovo.
Previously issued non-biometric machine-readable passports usually remain valid until their respective expiration dates. As of January 2019, there were over 150 jurisdictions issuing e-passports. Many nations issue (or plan to issue) biometric passports that contain an embedded microchip, making them machine-readable and difficult to counterfeit.
While passports are typically issued by national governments, certain subnational governments are authorised to issue passports to citizens residing within their borders.
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Standard passports contain the full name, photograph, place and date of birth, signature, and the expiration date of the passport. The document certifies the personal identity and nationality of its holder. It enables its holder travel to and from foreign countries and to access consular assistance while overseas. Dutch ordinary, Nepalese diplomatic, Polish ordinary, and People's Republic of China service passportsĪ passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a given person's identity.