Surrender Your Passport?

[JenEricTravelers]

In a few countries, they do, indeed, take a photo copy of your passport when you check-in at a hotel....no copy=no room. Complain all you want, it won't fly. In Saudi Arabia (not that many of you will be heading there anytime soon) they take the passport of airline crew members and do not return them till they are processing out of the country at the airport.

 

In Italy they take passports at all hotels and usually keep them overnight, this is required by Italian law. You would have no idea if they took a photocopy or not.

 

Not always true. We stayed in Rome, Florence and Pisa for 10-nights and no hotel insisted on keeping our passport overnight. They did want us to go about our business so they'd have time to photocopy and call in our info but we insist that they do it while we're standing there and ensure we walk away with the passport itself.

 

Your passport IS your only sort of identification overseas. Your drivers license, health insurance card or anything else is non-issue and doesnt mean anything.

 

Failing to prepare and simply believing the ship/shore agent is your only alliance is not in your best interest. While you cant circumvent the passport-holding policy, another method we use is to save a copy of our passport (pdf) in our private email accounts to be pulled up at any Embassy (aside from having a copy)

[G'ma]

In a few countries, they do, indeed, take a photo copy of your passport when you check-in at a hotel....no copy=no room. Complain all you want, it won't fly. In Saudi Arabia (not that many of you will be heading there anytime soon) they take the passport of airline crew members and do not return them till they are processing out of the country at the airport.

 

In Italy they take passports at all hotels and usually keep them overnight, this is required by Italian law. You would have no idea if they took a photocopy or not.

 

Also in Hungary, Russia, Spain, most northern Africa countries, Canary Islands, many South American countries as well as many in Asia.

 

It's amazing to me that some people are so naive to believe they can do what they want, when they want when traveling. We Americans are an unsophisticated lot, for sure. We really need to get out more.

[FLACRUISER99]

The cruise lines collect passports to speed the clearing of the ships by immigration officials in the various ports. These officials check (and sometimes stamp) the passports without the need for all passengers to be present.

I agree with paul. The Cruise Lines usually give you a receipt for your passport when they collect them. They only do this because of the rules of different countries they visit. If you (ChevyCruiser)do not want to comply with their immigration rules don't travel by cruise ship.

[Mary Ellen]

After reading this post on an earlier thread, I realized how foolish it is to worry about surrendering our passports to the cruiselines. We've done it and will do it again without hesitation. You are given a receipt for your passport.

[JenEricTravelers]

It's amazing to me that some people are so naive to believe they can do what they want' date=' when they want when traveling. We Americans are an unsophisticated lot, for sure. We really need to get out more.[/quote']

 

G'ma - we're not the only country who believes we can go to another country and believe its just like home and do what they want. I see it with the Brits and Germans in other countries. Because our nation is so large, we're more likely to intra-nationally travel v. go abroad, unlike Europe which is obviously smaller and borders easier to move around.

 

I disagree we're unsophisticated considering the 3rd world technological customer service and other issues I've experienced in Germany alone. I believe the mentality is lack of humbleness and openness to new cultures. Despite our melting pot beginnings we're quite ethnocentric and it shows when I see American's visiting abroad. I was that way when I arrived here but have learned to tone it down, assimilate to a certain extent and observe more often. But then I live here and have the time to do so, most visitors dont.

 

Consider the fact that if your passport is the only form of acceptable ID in another country, wouldnt you be hesitant to let it out of your sight? I am and explaining to my husband who is an MP and security management/t3rr0**$m expert, he was not excited about the concept either.

 

MaryEllen- that is a great post to reference and it explains a lot to me. I will show it to my husband. Again, I recommend saving .pdf copies or your passport in a secure folder of you email accounts for easy retrieval if you have to go to visit your Embassy - at least it proves you have one and the number (suffices in case you lose your paper copy too)

[sail7seas]

We have had our passports held when checking into hotels in Florence, Venice, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Marbella, and Athens......at least. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind. They were held for various lengths of time but we never had any difficulty having them returned to us.

 

We have rules in the U.S. that foreign visitors don't like; they have rules we don't like.

 

 

Whaddyagoona do? You have the choice to refuse and they will refuse you a stay in their hotel.

[lovesublime]

Nearly everyone who has posted here is wrong. There is no law in European countries where hotels have to hold your passport. In many places the hotels are required to report to law enforcement their guest list on a nightly basis. All they need is your basic passport info written down. Hand them your passport and stand there and wait while they record the required information and have your passport handed back to you. My husband travels to Saudi Arabia very often and he has never had his passport 'held' there either.

 

I don't appreciate the statement that Americans are unsophisticated. It would be very foolish to leave your valuable documents with a hotel clerk for any length of time. You can bet that if the passport turned up missing or stolen that the hotel would take no responsibilty. It's called being careful and looking out for yourself while traveling in a foreign country and there is nothing unsophisticated about that.

[cruisemom42]

Nearly everyone who has posted here is wrong. There is no law in European countries where hotels have to hold your passport. In many places the hotels are required to report to law enforcement their guest list on a nightly basis. All they need is your basic passport info written down. Hand them your passport and stand there and wait while they record the required information and have your passport handed back to you. My husband travels to Saudi Arabia very often and he has never had his passport 'held' there either.

 

I don't appreciate the statement that Americans are unsophisticated. It would be very foolish to leave your valuable documents with a hotel clerk for any length of time. You can bet that if the passport turned up missing or stolen that the hotel would take no responsibilty. It's called being careful and looking out for yourself while traveling in a foreign country and there is nothing unsophisticated about that.

 

Be that as it may (and I believe you are right), this is straying from the original topic of the cruise ship staff holding your passport. You have NO choice in that matter, as far as I know.

[Moeve]

It does not matter what country in the world you are from (I am for example german and carry an EU passport) and just for your information no US hotel is entitled to KEEP any copies of passports - they may verify on sight that you are who you say you are. Do remember the only reason they want that is for credit card verificaztion BUT if they read the Merchant contract they are not even allowed to do that. NO WHERE does the DHS allow or require hotels keep passport details either therefore I am able to stop this nonsence. I hope none of you ever become a victim of ID theft but this is the perfect area in which these details are skimmed. They have it all - your passport details, your signiture and your credit card number. Now try and dispute being anywhere doing soemthing wrong or paying something you didn't - it is impossible with thta kind of data floating around.

 

Hotel managers (strangely I only ever have to problem in the US) get quite pantsy when I say fine you want mine and then I get a copy of yours... No well then I get my cell phone out and start dailing. That is when they will back down since they have NO LEGAL RIGHT WHATS SO EVER to insist on a copy and the KNOW it!!!!!

[hunter2004]

Let me added my 2 cents please, my info might be outdated since things changed around a lot lately.

Related to the topic. 15 Years ago, I had a friend working on the cargo ship from other country that arrived to US port (Tempa and some others)often. After the worker finished they worked or whatever, some of them like to leave the ship to explore whatever the time was allowed. For the whole time the ship kept their passports. It's for the immigration purpuses. The cargo ship had responsibility to kept the passport to prevent some of the crew to flee and if they do, the ship will then turn this indivitual passport to the immigration. It has happened many times. That person has no way to get the passport back so he or she live in US illigally.

 

Without passport (keep in mind that the visa eventually expired), this person can't travel in or out of US, so he or she become illigal immigrant. Can't apply for one without being sent back to their original country.

[hunter2004]

My husband and I visited other countries but not any in EU. My guessing that since we fly there, the immigration on both end already know who is in and who is out and you already filled out arriving form and checked again at the airport. Some big hotels there just verified to see who you are what you said to be but never ask to keep passport. Some small hotels never ask for passport just the name.

 

I can see how this different with the cruise ship. Since the ship visiting different port everyday or so, the immigration have to figure out the way the keep track people just incase some decided to stay in the country illigally. But with many ships and Cargo ship and so on, it is difficult for immigration to opperated like at the airport, think about the lost time of cruise passenger and many other who's only a few hour to explore. So my guessing that let the ship take responsible to keep track of their passengers and crew member and report to the immigration only if one does not report back to the ship. This is just my opinion so don't shoot me..hehehe

[G'ma]

G'ma - we're not the only country who believes we can go to another country and believe its just like home and do what they want. I see it with the Brits and Germans in other countries. Because our nation is so large, we're more likely to intra-nationally travel v. go abroad, unlike Europe which is obviously smaller and borders easier to move around.

 

I disagree we're unsophisticated considering the 3rd world technological customer service and other issues I've experienced in Germany alone. I believe the mentality is lack of humbleness and openness to new cultures. Despite our melting pot beginnings we're quite ethnocentric and it shows when I see American's visiting abroad. I was that way when I arrived here but have learned to tone it down, assimilate to a certain extent and observe more often. But then I live here and have the time to do so, most visitors dont.

 

Consider the fact that if your passport is the only form of acceptable ID in another country, wouldnt you be hesitant to let it out of your sight? I am and explaining to my husband who is an MP and security management/t3rr0**$m expert, he was not excited about the concept either.

 

MaryEllen- that is a great post to reference and it explains a lot to me. I will show it to my husband. Again, I recommend saving .pdf copies or your passport in a secure folder of you email accounts for easy retrieval if you have to go to visit your Embassy - at least it proves you have one and the number (suffices in case you lose your paper copy too)

 

By unsophisticated, I refer to many Americans being clueless about our world, other countries laws, other cultures. We simply don't get around much and when we do, we expect "little America" everywhere.

 

A funny incident just came to mind: I was Tour Manager for a large group of people who had been traveling throughout Scandinavia for a coupla weeks. We were on Silja traveling to Helsinki for a few days prior to entering Russia. The trip had run smoothly and the 80 plus folks in the group were having a pretty good time and were open to new experiences. There were 2 of us Tour Managers for this large group.

 

Silja passage included breakfast buffet. It was a typical Scandinavia layout, fruits - mostly stewed, cold cereals, musli, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, cold meats, breads, jams, some exotic cold cuts like venison, elk, reindeer, etc. There was a small party of Americans onboard...3 couples, if I recall (not part of our group, thankfully). Well, you should have heard this moron cursing, complaining and otherwise being an idiot because he couldn't get FRIED EGGS and hot toast for breakfast. He made such a scene that security was called and he was removed to his cabin...and confined there until the ship docked in Helsinki. Over eggs, for crying out loud!!

 

As for surrendering the passport; if a country or a locality requires you to surrender it, you will - or you won't leave the premises. When visiting other countries, you must abide by their rules. The old "when in Rome......" adage is true.

[Moeve]

You know the only country I have been to lately where the hotel requires you to hand over your passport because of GOVERNMENTAL RULES is China!!! Even Russia on my last visit did not require it.

 

Beware that there is a HUGE differance between GOVERNMENTLE REQUIREMENTS and thoses of hotel chains ignoring their Credit card Merchant contracts and trying to protect their behinds when it comes to credit card fraud.

[JenEricTravelers]

It's a fair consideration for all of us to learn more about what is required for passport handling (outside cruises as well) to ensure we're not left w/o ID/security and what is within our rights as a foreign national. It's best advised for OP and others to visit the Dept of State website and know where the nearest embassy is to the port cities.

 

Register your trip w/ the US Embassy: https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/

 

Another suggestion is to take legible and high quality copies of your passport, have them certified by a notary public and provide those to the hotel along with hotel clerk's visual review of your passport at the same time.

 

More often hotels keep passports to ensure you pay your bill and to ensure that you're not a known criminal. Be open to providing the copies, be friendly during the transaction, dont really give them a chance to keep it. Perhaps best to also call a hotel first to ask their policy (if possible). Unlike a cruise ship where there is 1 or 2 people responsible for the passports and provide reciepts, this is not the case for hotels with many different front desk personnel and sometimes their desks arent open 24-hrs a day.

[Moeve]

The "problem" Is that thoses "policies" HAVE NO LEGAL standing!!! No hotel is a gov. official therefore they are not privy to that infomation. It is purely a saving of the behind since if a credit card is stolen and the true owner disputes the payment the hotel is out of luck. That is why they may verify you are who you say you are and that the CC is truely yours BUT they may not keep any of thoses details on record since all your PASSPORT Details are for Immigration and OFFICIAL ID purposes only.

 

Many hotels try to get away with it - and since many guests are not aware of the dangers or of the fact that they can deny a hotel a copy - they just don't say anything and hand over those details. Most poeple only become aware of the immensce reprocussions when they are involved in a true case of ID theft.

[JenEricTravelers]

Since I cant seem to find information on the Dept of State website supporting/denying the practice in any form (did send an email question though) what legal proof do any of us that the use of passports in this form is illegal- and by who's standards, US or the foreign country? Until facts come from the Dept of State (for US persons traveling abroad only) we wont know what is correct or not. At this point, the entire conversation is speculative, yet very much worth figuring out.

1. Make 2-certified copies: leave 1-at home, store 1 in your email and keep 1- with you separate from the real passport
   
2. Register your trip with the Dept of State
   
3. Firmly refuse leaving the passport for any amount of time, insisting on getting it back before you leave the desk.

[hunter2004]

In some coumtries, passport is the only official ID to checked to see who you said to be since many fake ID like driver license can easily douplicated. When I was cashing my travel checq at the bank, the bank official asked for passport just to verify that my travel checq is not fake. Passport is the only ID they can trust.

[JenEricTravelers]

I phoned the US Embassy/Consulate in Berlin re: this issue and they replied that they dont have any information to answer me. Makes me think that it's not a problem, it's an accepted practice, it's not regulated therefore it would be hard to pursue if something were to occur, it's minor compared to the larger picture of t3rr0r1sm and crime.

 

I contacted the National Center for Information on Passports w/ the State Dept and they haven't a clue to the practice and dont know anything about it being the same for foreign travelers to the US.

[kaisatsu]

My husband has an Indian passport, and outside of the Caribbean, he has been asked to surrender his passport to the ship upon embarking every time. If you don't know, an Indian passport is extremely difficult to replace if it's lost, so he absolutely hates having to do this, and in some cases, the ship hasn't even given a receipt. On our last voyage, he did get it back after a few days, but for the other trips, they've kept it until the end.

 

We notoriously have problems at embarkation, because he often needs visas for our cruise ports (on one cruise, he had to get six different visas!). We also tend to cruise close to home, so in many cases his visa is actually a residency permit. When we cruised East Asia, they collected every passenger's passports, and we were terrified when they put ours into a separate empty box, because they didn't know what to make of our Chinese residence permits (that looked different from the standard Chinese tourist visa). When we cruised out of Barcelona, the embarkation staff couldn't figure out whether he was legally allowed to board with a Norway-issued Schengen visa, so again it went off to the purser's office alone.

 

Each trip, we've asked if there's any alternative to surrendering his passport to the ship, and we've never had any luck. Once we even tried to convince them that since we both had the same visa, they needed to take mine as well, but no. "You have a US passport. We don't need yours." Even though of course I'd been in the Schengen zone much longer than a tourist exemption would allow.

 

And to address this one...

But this was between Italy and Greece - both Schengen member countries (once you have cleared immigration into one of the member countries, you don't need a passport to travel to any of the others).

That's true of a land vacation, but on a cruise, you technically enter and leave the Schengen zone at every port. If you do need a visa for a country, and the ship sails into two different ports (or returns to the same port later), you actually need a multiple-entry visa! We were on a cruise where some people weren't supposed to disembark in Shanghai, because they had the wrong visa, and their single entry was used up earlier in the trip when they embarked in Beijing.

[G'ma]

I phoned the US Embassy/Consulate in Berlin re: this issue and they replied that they dont have any information to answer me. Makes me think that it's not a problem, it's an accepted practice, it's not regulated therefore it would be hard to pursue if something were to occur, it's minor compared to the larger picture of t3rr0r1sm and crime.

 

I contacted the National Center for Information on Passports w/ the State Dept and they haven't a clue to the practice and dont know anything about it being the same for foreign travelers to the US.

 

U.S. State Department, Embassies, State Department have nothing to do with what foreign countries might require.

 

There are volumes written about traveling abroad, what happens, what might happen, how to protect yourself from theft, etc. I will give you a quote from one of them:

 

In many countries, you will be asked to surrender your passport when registering at a hotel. This is a routine procedure, as hotels must submit a daily report to police on all registered guests. Although a routine police procedure, be aware that this information may also be reviewed by a local intelligence service looking for targets of opportunity. Don't forget to get your passport back at the earliest possible time.

Ref: http://rf-web.tamu.edu/security/SECGUIDE/T5terror/Travel.htm

You don't have any choice here. You either follow their rules or you are invited to be escorted back to the airport for your trip back home.

The U.S. also requires citizens of certain countries to surrender their passport here too....for the same reasons.

[sail7seas]

Since I cant seem to find information on the Dept of State website supporting/denying the practice in any form (did send an email question though) what legal proof do any of us that the use of passports in this form is illegal- and by who's standards, US or the foreign country? Until facts come from the Dept of State (for US persons traveling abroad only) we wont know what is correct or not. At this point, the entire conversation is speculative, yet very much worth figuring out.

1. Make 2-certified copies: leave 1-at home, store 1 in your email and keep 1- with you separate from the real passport

What is a certified copy of a passport? :confused: Never heard of that. You mean have it 'notarized'? Can't see that is worth anything more than just a regular copy......which is only useful in that you'd have the passport number/date of issue etc

1. Register your trip with the Dept of State
   
2. Firmly refuse leaving the passport for any amount of time, insisting on getting it back before you leave the desk.

 

 

 

....

[lovesublime]

It does not matter what country in the world you are from (I am for example german and carry an EU passport) and just for your information no US hotel is entitled to KEEP any copies of passports - they may verify on sight that you are who you say you are. Do remember the only reason they want that is for credit card verificaztion BUT if they read the Merchant contract they are not even allowed to do that. NO WHERE does the DHS allow or require hotels keep passport details either therefore I am able to stop this nonsence. I hope none of you ever become a victim of ID theft but this is the perfect area in which these details are skimmed. They have it all - your passport details, your signiture and your credit card number. Now try and dispute being anywhere doing soemthing wrong or paying something you didn't - it is impossible with thta kind of data floating around.

 

Hotel managers (strangely I only ever have to problem in the US) get quite pantsy when I say fine you want mine and then I get a copy of yours... No well then I get my cell phone out and start dailing. That is when they will back down since they have NO LEGAL RIGHT WHATS SO EVER to insist on a copy and the KNOW it!!!!!

 

You are right and I wonder why others refuse to believe it. If they read the inside of their U.S. passports, it states that the passport is the property of the U.S. government. No hotel clerk anywhere has the right to 'hold' someone's passport. They can ask to see it and right down your information. Someone also posted here that some countries have the hotels collect passports and take them to the local police station to be stamped. That would be violating the law as no one is allowed to stamp anything in a U.S. passport except for immigration officials.

 

It's also stated inside the passport that it should be carefully 'safeguarded'. Sorry, but leaving a passport with a hotel clerk in a foreign country isn't exactly 'safeguarding' it. Bottom line, they have no right to hold your passport for any length of time. I have to wonder what kind of hotels you guys are staying in. In all my travels, in all my life I have never been asked anywhere to surrender my passport. It's also not a good idea to give copies of your passport to anyone.

[cruisemom42]

In trying to pin down some more definite info re: hotels, I came across the following document on the FDA website (yes, the federal agency) regarding travel precautions:

 

http://www.fda.gov/ora/inspect_ref/giit/Exhibits_pages/x4b.pdf

 

See page 2 under "The Actual Trip" item numbered 2: Be aware that you may be asked to surrender your passport.

 

Without any personal comment on how astute the FDA is, it seems like official govt policy doesn't seem to think it's unusual or wrong to have a hotel ask to keep your passport....:cool:

 

 

 

 

And here is another source (excerpted from the US Dept of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs) that seems to not have issue with leaving your passport overnight with a hotel if required:

 

 

http://www.armchair.com/info/passport.html

[sail7seas]

You are right and I wonder why others refuse to believe it. If they read the inside of their U.S. passports, it states that the passport is the property of the U.S. government. No hotel clerk anywhere has the right to 'hold' someone's passport. They can ask to see it and right down your information. Someone also posted here that some countries have the hotels collect passports and take them to the local police station to be stamped. That would be violating the law as no one is allowed to stamp anything in a U.S. passport except for immigration officials.

 

It's also stated inside the passport that it should be carefully 'safeguarded'. Sorry, but leaving a passport with a hotel clerk in a foreign country isn't exactly 'safeguarding' it. Bottom line, they have no right to hold your passport for any length of time. I have to wonder what kind of hotels you guys are staying in. In all my travels, in all my life I have never been asked anywhere to surrender my passport. It's also not a good idea to give copies of your passport to anyone.

 

 

That is all fine and most likely true. I don't question that.

My comment is exactly what one does when they are faced with the choice of having traveled for 15 hours, it is early in the morning, you are dirty and bone tired and hungry and want to check into the hotel you booked months ago, shower and nap?? When they insist that you will not be checking into their hotel unless you comply the practicallity of the situation is such that, in the middle of tourist season with all the hotels booked, you are going to comply. You are going to have an exhausting, difficult time finding a different hotel (which may make the same demand)......

 

In real life....... you are going to hand over the passport and pray you see it again soon.

 

In the event you are in Rome, for instance, there is a U.S. Embassy and Consulate. It would not be difficult to get another passport if necessary. If you are in some out of the way, rural area.......it could be a nightmare. (Make a copy of information page and travel with a set of spare passport photos.)

[ChevyCruiser]

I guess the question still remains, other than "it's standard practice" or WHY does a hotel or cruise line think they NEED to hold your passport? What are they holding it for?