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I live in a very corrupt country - Ukraine. Let me give you some advice. First, try to avoid looking like stranger. Try to look like the locals. That is often difficult, I know. It's the only advice about how to avoid corrupt police. They often search for strangers just to get some money from them, because strangers are easy meat. All the other advice is ...

First, in problematic places I would try to avoid interacting with the police as much as possible. Another strategy is patience. Usually, corrupt police are just trying to make quick money off an easy victim. Tourists are an obvious target because they tend to have more money and are more likely to be unfamiliar with the local language and customs. If you ...

The level of support offered by embassies will vary widely from each foreign embassy / consulate to another. A couple of standard support measures provided though are: Contact family members to pass messages along Provide details on contact information on local lawyers, and interpreters if needed. Depending on whether such a support system is available for ...

If you have a brand new passport, then keep all the pages together with an elastic band, and only release new pages when the old ones are full. This has kept things nice and orderly for me so far - the only place anyone took off the band was Taiwan where they at least stamped only the next page and not some random mid-passport place. If your passport is ...

To avoid getting harassed? Avoid the police in places where they have a very bad reputation, like Mexico City. In my experience at least in Mexico City the corrupt ones always look evil. The ones that look nice actually are nice. Look in their eyes and you might be able to see it even from a distance. (I'm really not kidding) When you can't avoid the ...

During the Cold War (and probably continuing to this day), Russian spies were taught to say, "Call the the Soviet Consulate," or "Call the Soviet Embassy," when caught. While undergoing training, they were tortured to induce them to say more than that. If they said "more," they flunked the course, were kicked out of the program (and lost their main chance to ...

I'm tempted to write a book on non-verbal communication where you can't speak the language. :) Two things you could do: Hand signals. Turn to the page, point with your index finger, and indicate a stamping motion. They're passport officials, apart from taking money in some countries, they'll recognise their most readily identified action ;) (I'm ...

You can stay without registration during 3 month after you came. But you need to have a document that confirms that (airplane or train ticket will work). If you want to stay longer - you'll need to get a temporary registration in the police. That may be painful, because this registration is bound to a place where you live and should be made for you by your ...

A key here is "networking," that is, "playing the influence game." Policemen respect "authority." They may pick on you if you appear to have no "authority," particularly if you're "young" (in your teens or twenties). Thus, it helps to know people that they would respect. Or at least give them the impression that you do (this happens more easily if you look ...

The key tactic no one else mentioned - relax and do your best to not look like a foreigner. I can't explain it, but whenever I notice a strange well dressed person that person turns out to be a foreigner - he has some concentrated+excited look and behaves largely different from local people. Again, I can't explain it in full - foreigners while being ...

Upsetting as it is, people will do this. And not just border officials. I was rushing to make a Canada-US connection, and had my passport in my hand with my boarding pass, when I came upon a TSA security point I wasn't expecting. The attendant asked for my boarding pass and when I held it towards her, grabbed everything out of my hand. Then she wouldn't give ...

Unless you're from a country that requires you to obtain an exit visa, there is no sharing of information as a general rule. Even in cases where there are information sharing agreements, such as between the US and Canada, the US and Mexico, or in the Schengen area, the information that is shared is about people from outside the info-sharing nations, but not ...

No, officials are allowed to do so. They sometimes need to take your passport to check for false passports. In case of a law suit against you, they are even allowed to confiscate your passport for a longer period. It is a mechanism to keep you in the country. The recent example of this practice was with Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the USA. Having said ...

Write a note in English (on a paper and put it in the passport) or ask in English. It is pretty rare to find an immigration officer who does not speak at least some English. Make sure you are really polite and friendly, some immigration officers are pretty quick to take offense and you don't want that. Make sure that the space you suggest is sufficient. ...

Go to a translation site such as Google Translate and print out a message in the language from the country you want to visit stating that you wish to have your passport stamped only next to existing stamps. Of course, you can't put something like "please do not stamp on any blank pages", as the words for 'stamp', 'blank', and 'page' are likely to get lost ...

I've been told to register if you're in a place for 7 days or more. Simply put, hostels should be able to do this for you, it takes a day, and is very simple. Just ask them when you get there. Nobody checked mine, however upon exit, but when I return to Russia I'll continue to register - it's one thing you don't want to get caught short on.

In Romania the police is also corrupt but fortunately the bribe is working VERY well especially with old generation. The policeman in Romania will not take you to the police station for minor stuff because it involves way too much paper work. Just enter into discussion with them, smile and show your intention to pay a small bribe by holding your wallet in ...

I carry my International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis with my passport (as is its proper place), which also means I have a handy bright-yellow paper flag somewhere in the middle of my passport. Generally speaking, I've found that its a fairly effective means of keeping stamps on the half of my passport before the certificate, and no customs ...

I just received this advice from a "professional" New Zealand traveller in my hostel in Tbilisi, Georgia: Wrap a piece of paper around the blank pages and write on it, "please do not put stamps on the blank pages as I am an overland traveller and need these pages for visas." I don't know if he's actually tried it though...

Going into James bond mode: If you are worth spying on, definitely! Going off James bond mode: No, it would be really hard to implement. In only a minority of countries your passport is actually scanned with a computer. Usually you only get "the look" by the passport checking official. Even if you emigrate your country does not know by default about your ...

The US and UK governments record all phone calls and emails that go through those countries, so the number you call from or the IP address that you connect to the internet from would be recorded by them if you made such calls/emails. Edit: I was asked to provide some references for this info. See the lawsuit by the Electronic Freedom Foundation ...