Passports of the European Union
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EU member states use a common passport design, burgundy coloured with the name of the member state, its coat of arms and the title "European Union" (in the language(s) of the issuing country and its translation).
The European Union does not issue passports, but ordinary passports issued by its 28 member states share a common design.[1] Common features include the burgundy coloured cover, the use of the words "European Union" in the country's official language, as well as common security features and biometrics.[2]
Some EU member states also issue non-EU passports to certain people who have a nationality which does not render them citizens of the European Union (e.g., British Overseas Territories Citizens except those with a connection to Gibraltar, British Protected Persons and British Subjects).[3]
In addition, the European Commission issues European Union Laissez-Passers to the members and certain civil servants of its institutions.[citation needed]
Contents
Use[edit]
With a valid passport, EU citizens are entitled to exercise the right of free movement in the European Economic Area (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and Switzerland, without a visa.[citation needed]
When going through border controls to enter an EEA country, EU citizens possessing valid biometric passports are sometimes able to use automated gates instead of immigration counters. For example, when entering the United Kingdom, at major airports, adult holders of EU biometric passports can use ePassport gates, whilst all other EU citizens (such as those using a national identity card or a non-biometric passport) and non-EEA citizens must use an immigration counter. Anyone travelling with children must also use an immigration counter.[4]
As an alternative to holding a passport, EU citizens can also use a valid national identity card to exercise their right of free movement within the EEA and Switzerland without a visa..[5] Strictly speaking, it is not necessary for an EU citizen to possess a valid passport or national identity card to exercise their right of free movement. In theory, if an EU citizen can prove his/her nationality by any other means (e.g. by presenting an expired passport or national identity card, or a citizenship certificate), he/she must be permitted to enter and reside in the EEA and Switzerland without a visa. An EU citizen who is unable to demonstrate his/her nationality satisfactorily must nonetheless be given 'every reasonable opportunity' to obtain the necessary documents or to have them delivered within a reasonable period of time.[6][7][8]
Common design features[edit]
Since the 1980s, European Union member states have started to harmonise the following aspects of the designs of their ordinary passports (but not other types of passports, such as diplomatic, service and emergency passports):[1]
Overall format[edit]
- Paper size B7 (ISO/IEC 7810 ID-3, 88 mm × 125 mm)
- 32 pages (passports with more pages can be issued to frequent travellers)
- Colour of cover: burgundy red
Cover[edit]
Information on the cover, in this order, in the language(s) of the issuing state:
- The words "EUROPEAN UNION" (before 1997: "EUROPEAN COMMUNITY")
- Name of the issuing state (similar typeface as "EUROPEAN UNION")
- Emblem of the state
- The word "PASSPORT"
- The Biometric Passport symbol
First page[edit]
Information on the first page, in one or more of the languages of the European Union:
- The words "EUROPEAN UNION"
- Name of the issuing state (similar typeface to that of "European Union")
- The word "PASSPORT"
- Serial number (may also be repeated on the other pages)
Identification page[edit]
Information on the (possibly laminated) identification page, in the languages of the issuing state plus English and French, accompanied by numbers that refer to an index that lists the meaning of these fields in all official EU languages:
-
1. Surname 2. Forename(s) 3. Nationality 4. Date of birth 5. Sex 6. Place of birth 7. Date of issue 8. Date of expiry 9. Authority 10. Signature of holder
Different spellings of the same name within the same document[edit]
Names containing non-English letters are usually spelled in the correct way in the non-machine-readable zone of the passport, but are mapped according to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in the machine-readable zone, e.g. the German umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and the letter ß are mapped as AE / OE / UE and SS, so Müller becomes MUELLER, Groß becomes GROSS, and Gößmann becomes GOESSMANN.
The ICAO mapping is mostly used for computer-generated and internationally used documents such as airplane tickets, but sometimes (like in US visas) also simple letters are used (MULLER, GOSSMANN). German credit cards use in the non-machine-readable zone either the correct or the mapped spelling.
Some German names are always spelled with "old" spelling, such as the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or the Third-Reich politician Paul Joseph Goebbels; however, in the name of the German football player Ulrich Hoeneß, the umlaut is spelled "old", but the letter ß is not (the spelling in the machine-readable passport zone is HOENESS, the ß being mapped here).
The three possible spelling variants of the same name (e.g. Müller / Mueller / Muller) in different documents sometimes lead to confusion, and the use of two different spellings within the same document (like in the passports of German-speaking countries) may give people who are unfamiliar with the foreign orthography the impression that the document is a forgery.
The Austrian passport can (but does not always) contain a note in German, English, and French that AE / OE/ UE / SS are the common mappings of Ä / Ö / Ü / ß.
Names originally written in a non-Latin writing system may pose another problem if there are various internationally recognized transcription standards. For example, the Russian surname Горбачёв is transcribed
- "Gorbachev" in English,
- "Gorbatschow" in German,
- "Gorbatchov" in French,
- "Gorbachov" in Spanish,
- "Gorbaczow" in Polish, and so on.
Following page[edit]
Optional information on the following page:
-
11. Residence 12. Height 13. Colour of eyes 14. Extension of the passport 15. Name at birth (if now using married name or have legally changed names)
Remaining pages[edit]
- The following page is reserved for:
- Details concerning the spouse of the holder of the passport (where a family passport is issued)
- Details concerning children accompanying the holder (name, first name, date of birth, sex)
- Photographs of the faces of spouse and children
- The following page is reserved for use by the issuing authorities
- The following page carries the index that translates the field numbers into the official languages of the EU
- The remaining pages are reserved for visa
- The inside back cover is reserved for additional information or recommendations by the issuing state in its own official language(s)
Overview of passports issued by 28 Member States[edit]
| Member state | Passport cover | Biodata page | Cost | Validity | Issuing authority | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
16 June 2006 | ||||
|
|
|
1 February 2008 | |||
|
|
Ministry of Interior Affairs |
29 March 2010 | |||
|
|
|
3 August 2015 | |||
|
|
|
13 December 2010 | |||
|
|
|
1 September 2006 | |||
|
|
1 January 2012 | ||||
|
|
1 June 2014[11] | ||||
|
|
21 August 2012 | ||||
|
21 August 2012 | |||||
|
|
|
12 April 2006 | |||
|
|
Municipal registration office | 11 November 2007 | |||
|
|
National Passport Centre ("Διεύθυνση Διαβατηρίων/Αρχηγείο Ελληνικής Αστυνομίας") | 28 August 2006 | |||
|
|
Registration Office (Nyilvántartó Hivatal) |
1 March 2012 | |||
|
|
Consular and Passport Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs | 3 October 2013 | |||
|
|
Minister of Foreign Affairs through | 20 May 2010 | |||
|
|
29 January 2015[19] | ||||
|
|
27 January 2011 | ||||
|
|
Passport Office, Luxembourg | 1 July 2011 | |||
| 29 September 2008 | ||||||
|
|
9 March 2014 | ||||
Application made within Poland:
Application made through a Polish consulate:
In both cases:
|
|
|
1 January 2006 | |||
|
25 May 2009 | |||||
|
|
Ministry of Administration and Interior (General Directorate for Passports) | 26 April 2006 | |||
|
|
15 January 2008 | ||||
|
28 August 2006 | |||||
|
|
2 January 2015 | ||||
|
|
|
2 January 2012 | |||
|
In the United Kingdom
Western European Passport Service: Paris Embassy
|
|
|
5 October 2010 | |||
|
Civil Status and Registration Office, Gibraltar | 6 September 2006 |
Passport rankings[edit]
See also: Visa requirements for European Union citizens
Passport rankings by the number of countries and territories their holders could visit without a visa or by obtaining visa on arrival in 2015 were as follows (Source: Henley Visa Restrictions Index 2015):
a) By countries (For details, click on the name of the country)
- Austria: 169, Belgium: 170, Bulgaria: 150, Croatia: 142, Cyprus: 158
- Czech Republic: 164, Denmark: 171, Estonia: 159, Finland: 172, France: 171
- Germany: 173, Greece: 167, Hungaria: 163, Ireland: 169, Italy: 171
- Latvia: 160, Lithuania: 159, Luxembourg: 171, Malta: 167, Netherlands: 171
- Poland: 158, Portugal: 170, Romania: 149, Slovakia: 162, Slovenia: 161
- Spain: 170, Sweden: 172, United Kingdom (British Citizen Passport): 173
b) By rank of the passports
|
|
Having several passports[edit]
Several passports of the same country[edit]
Some EU countries allow their citizens to have several passports of the country to circumvent certain travel restrictions.
It is possible to get the Israeli stamp on a separate piece of paper (Visitors whose passports show evidence of a visit to Israel are not allowed to enter Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria and Yemen).
Dual citizenship[edit]
Each EU country can make its own citizenship laws, so some EU countries allow dual citizenship without any restrictions (e.g. France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom), some regulate/restrict it (e.g. Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain), and others allow it only in exceptional cases (e.g. Lithuania) or only for citizens by descent (e.g. Croatia, Estonia).
The only real rule is that a citizen of an EU country can live and work in all other EU countries (but for voting and working in sensitive fields, such as government, police, military, citizenship is often required, and non-citizens may not have the same rights to welfare and unemployment benefits like citizens).
Some non-EU countries do not allow dual citizenship either, so that immigrants wanting to naturalize must sometimes renounce their old citizenship.
For details, see Citizenship of the European Union, Multiple citizenship, and the nationality laws of the countries in question.
See also[edit]
- Visa requirements for European Union citizens
- Citizenship of the European Union
- Passports of the European Economic Area
- National identity cards in the European Economic Area
- Visa policy in the European Union
- Schengen Area
- Public Register of Travel and Identity Documents Online
- False and Authentic Documents Online (FADO)
- Estonian alien's passport
- Non-citizens (Latvia)
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Resolution of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States of the European Communities, meeting within the Council of 23 June 1981".
- ^ "Council Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States".
- ^ Non-European lookalike passports, UK Passport office[dead link]
- ^ "UK Border Agency: Using e-passport gates". Ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk. 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/policyandlaw/guidance/ecg/ecb/ecb8/
- ^ Article 6.3.2 of the Practical Handbook for Border Guards (C (2006) 5186)
- ^ Judgement of the European Court of Justice of 17 February 2005, Case C 215/03, Salah Oulane vs. Minister voor Vreemdelingenzaken en Integratie
- ^ UK Border Force Operations Manual: Processing British and EEA Passengers without a valid Passport or Travel Document[dead link]
- ^ http://diplomatie.belgium.be/fr/binaries/prijs_Paspoorten_FR_tcm313-122220.pdf
- ^ "Travel documents, website of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic". Mvcr.cz. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Service prices 2014". Poliisi.fi. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Passport". Poliisi.fi. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ Department of Foreign Affairs. "Passport Fees - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". Dfa.ie. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Il Rilascio". Poliziadistato.it. Retrieved 2014-08-29.
- ^ "Passaporto per i minori". Poliziadistato.it. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Ministero degli Affari Esteri - Documenti di Viaggio - Passaporto". Esteri.it. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ STATE FEES FOR ISSUANCE OF PASSPORT
- ^ [2]
- ^ "Tarieven 2013". Bprbzk.nl. 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Paspoort en identiteitskaart voor Nederlanders in het buitenland". Denhaag.nl. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ "Paspoort wordt 10 jaar geldig". Rijksoverheid.nl. 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
- ^ Izdaja potnega lista
- ^ Izdaja potnega lista za otroka
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to European passports. |
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