All The Very Real Passports Not Issued By Countries

Video written by Adam Chase

[colinpovey]

My father worked for the World Bank, and had a Laissez-passer UN passport, as well as a US Passport. He was considered a diplomat when traveling on business, arranging for billion dollar loans to countries, but he could not use it for pleasure travel.

[sammysadventure]

Once I arrived with my EU Laissez-Passer at the UK border and the new border guard didn't know what it was. His training supervisor said to him. "Laissez-Passer is French and means 'let him pass' ... so let him pass." To be fair though, most of the time my EU-LP is completely new to the border guards, even within the EU.

[barsdogukankarakoyun]

This was a very interesting watch as a passport control officer. We all like an incredibly rare passport.

[untruelie]

"Laissez-passer" literally just means "Let [me] pass]" 😜

Btw., the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is identical with the medieval crusader order often called the Hospitallers. After they lost the Holy Land, they shifted to other areas, first to Rhodes and then to Malta, always searching for Muslims to fight against. Their full name tells their story: "The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta". So yeah, there is a real Crusader Knight Order who gives out passports and who is an observer in the UN.

[incandescence]

"speaking of beating people to death with no legal repercussions, our next subject is the police"
i love these snarky jokes please never stop making them

[MAlanThomasII]

You missed Holy See passports, which are distinct from Vatican City State passports. They're mainly diplomatic and service passports, similar to (but better than and about as rare as) the Sovereign Military Order of Malta passports.

[ZontarDow]

The reason Canada has allowed the Iroquois passport to be used for entry is because by law citizens must be allowed to return unless fleeing law enforcement from a country we have an extradition treaty with.

[mr-vet]

I’ve had 3 different types of US Passports….blue (tourist passport), red (govt/official passport), and black (diplomatic passport). On more than one occasion, when traveling with the diplomatic passport, customs and immigration officials as well as airline personnel pulled me/my family out of line to bring us to the front of the line to expedite us through the process…whether it was entering or departing a country or waiting to board a plane. This occurred in several European and African countries, but never in the US. Transiting through Morocco a couple of times, immigration officials rushed us off to a special VIP room in the airport terminal to relax and we were served tea and some snacks as we had a couple of hours of layover before the next flight. The officials told us that someone would retrieve us and take us directly to the gate for boarding. As a Sergeant First Class/ E-7 in the US Army (on embassy duty in another country), at the time, traveling with my wife and three children, all under 8 years old, I felt like royalty.

[Derekzparty]

I assumed whenever an Interpol agent needed to go to a foreign country they would just walk outside and wait for a rope with a harness attached to fall next to them.
They would attach the harness to themself very quickly and the helicopter would hoist them up and start flying as fast as it could to the mission.

Or maybe that was a Jason Bourne movie

[Silenthunter]

Mariners also use Seaman's books or Seaman Service Books (SSB). These are official records of mariner employment on ships involved in international voyages. These books looks exactly like passports and can be used for mariner repatriation in case of losing national passport. So they are valid travel documents but only for getting back to your home country and for traveling being employed on ship (and staying in ports worldwide).

[gaviswayze]

Just imagine passport officers going that's a rare passport you've got there. Wanna trade it for this passport I've got here?"

Trading cards, just with much higher potential repercussions

[TanzmitTransmit]

I can vouch for the non-limited edition Smurf (UN) Passport. Back in '96 my Uncle was doing work on behalf of the Smurfs helping to develop Namibia's fishing industry (which involved a fight with South Africa to get there but that's another story), when my family was visiting we all planned a trip driving down to Cape town. My family on NZ and Australian Passports cross the border fine but my Uncle could not bring his children into South Africa. They had been born in Kiribati and so had Kiribati Passports which were not recognised in SA. There's a chance in the not-long-after-Apartheid era that it just had not been rubber stamped yet but in any case they were denied entry because of the legacy of racism and I hope this issue is fixed now (in recognising Kiribati Passports). ANYWAYS, we spend a night in a camp (ok, old Army barracks) on the Namibian side all very sad. Then in the night my Uncle remembered his Smurf Passport which immediate family can also travel on. South African border guards: the next day : "Sorry about that Mr Clark..."

[gnilogaming]

I know a guy who works for UNICEF, he has 2 blue UN passports. As far as I'm aware, they are both permanent. One is for most jobs, and the other is for when he has to go to Israel, because they wont let him in if it has an arab Visa sticked into it.

[vasilzahariev]

I was watching this video on my PC, so had to stare blankly at my phone on my desk.

[josephschembri]

First I was angry that you showed Malta when saying "places that aren't actually countries"... Then I was thrilled when you described the SMOM passport.

[TheGrenadier]

The entire History of the Order of Malta is outstanding and goes beyond 900 years nowadays. Interesting to note that after everything - Crusades, heavy cavalry, nation-state, naval warfare, the Great Siege, Napoleon, british dominance etc. - they kind of returned to focus only on their original mission, a Hospitaller duty indeed. Ave Crux Alba.

[jjares]

My oldest kid was born stateless and we had to fly outside the country to register him under my nationality... he has a stateless passport (it's more like a travel permit), I actually have it stored and laminated just as a souvenir. It actually had the exact flight number he was allowed to board, and no return permit.

[Stargazewhetu]

Hong Kong have our own passport, but we got 2 different nationalities using 1 passport. Majority are Chinese nationality, but some of the people are holding stateless nationality Hong Kong passport. Usually are south Asian origin, they born in Hong Kong, have Hong Hong citizenship. But, Hong Kong gov is under Chinese gov, the Chinese gov doesn’t recognise them as Chinese nationality.

Also, some countries in the world recognise Hong Kong have a country status, in the arrival card, if we wrote Chinese instead of Hong Kong, we may got into trouble.

[ShadowsOfTheSky]

The thumbnail has a HAI passport that’s purple with a yellow H and the words are written in the Star Wars language. I don’t think that one can be used to travel anywhere, but I love the attention to detail and the little jokes.

[bababababababa]

These passports are still probably more powerful than the North Korean passport