-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Greetings,
I enjoyed some national ID documents in this year's KSP [0]. I'm used to see passports where the passport number has been perforated using laser in all the pages except the first ones. I know there are some passports which don't have the perforations, but wherever I see them I accepted as a fact that they match with the passport number. However, at least two of the passports I checked didn't match. I had to look for the machine readable part of the passport in order to verify it, and it seems like the "real" passport number is the perforated one, and not the one that bears the "passport number" inscription [1] Some brazilians used a form of national ID card which didn't have an expiration date [2] -- this is unusual since you're usually expected to come back in five years or so for that kind of documents. The photo in the brazilian passport has a (prominently located) date, which usually isn't the same as the passport's expedition date. I was told that you have to take the picture before and bring it with you when you're getting your passport. Mexican passports have longer or shorter durations depending on how much you pay on taxes when you request it. It probably has a legal framework, but I find it terrible when governments impose travel restrictions for their own citizens based on money requirements. Example given, in order to travel outside Venezuela and get your 600 USD allowance (the only legal way to get foreign currencies), you have to get a credit card, which is almost impossible if you are under 25. I recall seeing spanish passports written in their autonomic languages - -- they had labels in EU languages, as well as catalonian, galician and basque -- I didn't see that in recent biometrical passports, and I was told that you can now choose which language would you like your passport written in. My own national ID card had a "typo" in my birthdate (which zack and atomo64 promptly noticed), which is April 25th., 1987, but they typed "987" as the year, thus making me 1021 years old, which is NOT NICE. So, for a funny ending with a political touch, I found some people browsing through my passport looking for a United States Visa, which had "good" and "proper" information about me. Curious, at least. Thanks for Don and Anibal for taking care of the KSP, and everyone who participated this year! [0] Not as much as Jacobo: http://raw-output.org/20080815/blacklights [1] I assume that governments "reuse" older passport books and numbering in order to save money. And since several countries here are changing their national documents recently... well. [2] They don't need a passport to come to Argentina, due to MERCOSUR, that's why they used that card. We venezuelans aren't supposed to need a passport either for the same reason, and we were stamped with MERCOSUR stamps at the airport. The situation in South America regarding free travel is tricky, but hopefully improving, check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_South_American_Nations - -- José Miguel Parrella Romero PGP Key 0x005C3B82 Debian Developer www.bureado.com.ve -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkilBEQACgkQUWAsjQBcO4KRJACfVNBXjtTcAVJfgViLjM66pzPX g/UAnjRFW8EQSdfKq+n9NNfYRzaRn/ag =fif7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Debconf-discuss mailing list Debconf-discuss@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-discuss