While a digital copy is by no means an adequate substitute for the passport itself, it can sometimes satisfy the demands of legit security officials doing routine ID checks. Sure, the police in the stations are probably just as corrupt as the ones in the streets, but at least you will know for sure that you are not dealing with impostors. In this later scenario it is best to first show a digital or paper copy of your travel documents, and if they insist on the real thing find the nearest police station to get things straightened out. But in some other countries, like Russia, these random passport checks are often precursors to being robbed, scammed, or forced to pay a bribe. This is often just standard operating procedure in countries like Iraq, and I can remember being surrounded by soldiers there who wanted nothing more than to check my passport. The reason for this is simple: you may be regularly asked to show identification to police or military personnel. In countries that have major political problems, a tumultuous or totalitarian government, or where it is demanded by law, you may want to carry your passport with you at all times. To show to authority figures during ID checks. Make sure that your travel docs folder can be easily accessed from the photo gallery of your mobile devices.ģ. Therefore, it pays to create a dedicated folder for all digital copies of your travel papers. When trying to discover someone’s identity from the contents of their phone, it is my impression that the first thing that is looked at after the contacts is the photos. So be sure to at least have a copy of your travel docs that can be found in an easily accessible location. As few foreigners carry their passports with them in the streets at all times, it is more than possible to have a major medical incident without any form of identification. This way, you can have a reliable backup even if you end up losing your phone and your personal copies.Īlso, carrying some way that you can be ID’ed at all times is essential if you want your embassy, and by extension your family back home, contacted if you end up hospitalized, unresponsive, incapacitated, or, otherwise, dead meat. For good measure, make another digital copy of your passport and send it to a family member, friend, or someone you trust with legal matters. However, not everyone will be as lucky (or unlucky) as him. When my friend Steve Mendoza was in the Sendai Earthquake in Japan, he lost his passport but he maintained possession of his phone. You never know when you are going to be caught in some kind of disaster when abroad, and under these situations it is rather easy to lose your travel docs. Moreover, it comes handy for when you process your replacement passport.Ģ. Doing this will make it easier to prove your identity to authorities, especially when they perform cross-checks using the digital copy of your passport. If you’re not comfortable carrying printouts of your face in your wallet or card holder, a soft copy or digital scan on your phone will do. While passports are strictly issued in hard copy, your passport photos can be saved digitally and reproduced without restrictions. It is also smart to bring some extra copies of your passport photos. While I don’t think you will be denied a new passport on the grounds that you don’t have a copy of the missing one, being able to produce some show of ID makes the process go a lot smoother and faster. It is much easier to prove your identity and get a new passport if you have a copy of it to show to your consulate. While digital copies of the information page of your passport and visas are by no means a substitute for the originals, they can have many useful purposes:ġ. In point, my mobile phone and tablet pretty much go with me everywhere I go, and while I aim to have photocopies of my travel docs on me at all times, having digital copies on my mobile devices is actually a far more reliable method. In this way, in the event that I am unable to access my actual passport in a situation that I need it, I can still have access to the information/ documentation that is contained within it. I simply create a folder on all of my mobile devices called “travel docs,” and I fill it with photos of my passport’s information page, signature page, and all of the visas and entry stamps that I collect. While I still do this - it doesn’t hurt - I now also carry digital renditions of the ID page and visas on my mobile phone and tablet. In the old days we used to carry around photocopies of our passports in our hidden pockets, backpacks, and money belts just in case we needed to show identification or as an ass-saving/ body tagging mechanism in the event of disaster.

Photocopy of passport