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Since the whole Key Largo Debacle over Seven Mile Bridge, there's been this 'Conch Republic' that even issues souvenir passports.

A comment on slashdot inferred that some countries may actually take it seriously.

Is there any actual practical use for this 'passport', aside from trying to pretend you're something that you're not?

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    Wikipedia mentions the utility of a passport from the Principality of Hutt River, an unrelated micronation. TL;DR: it has sometimes been successfully used, sometimes it hasn't.
    – Golden Cuy
    Commented Dec 18, 2011 at 7:27
  • Terrorists across the world use these passports to alter and make passports for travel.. This organization supplied passports to the 911 attackers. Go figure how they are allowed to sell fake passports that are so easily turned into terrorist tools. Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 15:55
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    Basing your travel plans on comments on Slashdot is a good way to get yourself into trouble. Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 16:34
  • The last Conch Republic passport I saw was not even machine readable, and for that alone wouldn't be accepted in most countries as a travel document. It also seemed to not care that there was such a thing as ICAO which had specifications for passports. Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 22:18
  • The slashdot comment inferred that in some countries it might be taken seriously, not that some countries (i.e. those countries' governments) would take it seriously. There's a big difference between (to use the shashdot commenter's wording) "overly inquisitive people in exotic locales", and border guards.
    – owjburnham
    Commented Nov 1, 2017 at 14:07

2 Answers 2

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There are some bars in Key West that might give you a free drink for showing it, but no, it's just a good joke.

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Border policies for non-immigrant visitors are generally established by reciprocally-negotiated treaties or other less-impressively-named international agreements among the participating nations. So as a matter of formal policy, no country is going to take it seriously.

That being said, Slashdot is a hangout for hackers and engineers, any one of whom could probably explain to you the concept of "social engineerng" - the art of manipulating people toward a desired end. Ultimately it is a question of whether the person(s) reviewing your passport are going to accept it as valid or not. Skillful social engineering could skew that chance heavily toward the "Yes" column.

But you have to consider the potential downside risk if your passport is recognized as a fraud. Depending on the country of destination, I'd be afraid of suffering everything from a heavy fine to prosecution for fraud to imprisonment as a potential spy.

There are plenty of world nations that will let you buy, work, wait, or suffer your way to a legitimate second passport. If I genuinely felt the need for one, that's the way I would go. Much less downside risk.

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