Passport system in the Kiravian Federacy

A passport (Kiravic: lavnuríğuv, literally "gate-warrant" or "gate-authorisation") is the primary everyday for Kiravian citizens, nationals, and resident aliens. It is a form of issued by the federal subjects of the Kiravian Federacy and used for domestic identification purposes, and is distinct from passports valid for international travel, which are issued by the Kiravian State Executive.

Function and Appearance
Passports are typically issued in the form of a booklet, like an international passport, though some states and territories also issue passport cards.

Passports are used for domestic identification purposes such as verification of age or citizenship, and other situations where citizens of other nations might use a or a. In Kiravia, a driver's licence is not an identity document at all, but merely a legal permit to drive that is usually printed on conventional paper, contains only minimal information about the bearer, and is traditionally kept in the glove compartment of one's car. Card-form passports are virtually indistinguishable from driver's licences and ID cards issued by other nations.

It is not compulsory to own a passport, nor to carry one. In practice however, between 94% and 99% of resident Kiravian nationals hold passports, and most carry them on their person when out and about. Passport ownership was much lower (~35-45%, as low as 11% in some rural inland states) before it was made compulsory in the Kiravian Union and effectively compulsory for men in the Kiravian Remnant due to conscription policies. Among resident aliens, about half hold Kiravian internal passports, with the other half presumably using their permanent residency certificates, visas, international passports, or foreign IDs for equivalent purposes.

Per federal aviation regulations, a passport (or equivalent form of ID) is required to board an interstate domestic flight. Some private interstate bus services require a passport in order to purchase tickets, and hotels, as a matter of company policy (sometimes in compliance with state law), typically ask for a passport to reserve a room. Internal passports are required for Kiravian nationals to travel to the unincorporated external territories of the Kiravian Collectivity and procedurally required for sea travel to and from the incorporated overseas territories.

History
Unlike internal passports in other countries, which were historically used to monitor and restrict internal migration, the Kiravian internal passport system was originally intended to facilitate interstate travel and commerce by certifying to local authorities that the bearer was a Kiravian national and a citizen of one of its states, and therefore entitled to the rights and protections due to them under the CRK's confederal system.

As the Federacy expanded overseas and colonial governments were established, the passport system found a new purpose in providing identity documents for colonial inhabitants who were not Kiravian nationals (colonial natives, immigrant Coscivians). During the modern era, as the overseas components of the Federacy became better integrated and administrative restrictions on non-nationals were tightened while non-Coscivian citizens became better established, the internal passport system became useful as a means of upholding freedom of movement between states while helping guard against illegal immigration.

During the Kirosocialist era, internal passports were mandatory and were an important tool for implementing the government's labour transmigration policies and internal migration controls. Passport endorsements were used to control access to the Kiravian Union's many and closed territories in the West and Far North, as well as to limit the mobility and track the movements of persons deemed politically unreliable.

Since the Restoration, the issuance of passports has been governed and standardised by the Pan-Kiravian Passport Compact (PKPC), an agreement between the Government of the Kiravian Federacy (in its own right and on behalf of the non-self-governing federal subjects) and the governments of the various states. The PKPC reaffirms the recognition of every federal subject's passports by the others, sets uniform regulations on passport eligibility, as well as some standard design specifications and minimum requirements for personal data fields.

Personal Data
While the exact informational content of a passport varies by issuing authority, the PKPC requires that all passports include:


 * Legal name to the fullest extent possible within 180 characters, including at minimum a forename and surname.
 * A black-and-white photograph
 * State/territory/district of issuance; Countyship of issuance
 * Nationality (or lack thereöf)
 * Civil status (citizen, metic, mere national)
 * Registered domicile (if applicable)
 * Year of birth (lunar)
 * Sex
 * Eye and hair colour
 * Height
 * Residential address
 * Dates of issue and expiration
 * Indications of restriction (e.g. for parolees)

Most issuing jurisdictions also include:
 * Blood type (optional)
 * Organ and tissue donation preference

Historically, Kiravian passports also often included information such as the bearer's ethno-social background (tuva), occupation, religious affiliation, birth order, and legitimacy. The latter three fields were dropped under the Kiravian Union and Kiravian Remnant alike. Ethnicity and work assignment remained standard on the Kiravian Union's passports or the duration of its existence, while most states and territories under Remnant control discontinued them during the first decade of the Sovereignty Struggle. Some state passports, mostly on the mainland, retain an Occupation field, though it is voluntary in most.

Endorsements and Additional Content
Until the suspension of conscription in 21191, men's passports contained endorsements indicating their draft eligibility, completion of service, or exemption. Some states provide optional endorsements indicating veteran status.

Fariva State and New Ardmore intend to introduce passport endorsements designating certain classes of, though there are questions about whether this is permissible under federal disability laws and the existign laws of the states in question.

In the 21200s, there has been movement among the federal subjects to streamline bureaucratic registration and cut costs by merging other government-issued identity documents into the passport booklet. The comedian Ŵyclev Gŵnes is credited with starting this trend when during a television special he made light of the fact that passport booklets contain so many pages that go unused. The states of Asperidan, Devahoma, Elegia, Ilfenóra, Kastera, Tarunua, and Ventarya have since inextricably combined their motoring licenses into their passports. In other states it is non-standard and optional but being phased in. Other previously separate documents that have been converted to passport pages are Public Coverage Profiles, voter registration cards, and certain firearm licenses.

Passport booklets include an opening message from the federal subject's Chief State Executive (or whichever cabinet official is responsible for civil registration) or, less commonly, its Governor. Further fluff content, such as lists of state/territorial symbols, simplified highway maps, and kind reminders about anti-littering laws and the like, give the booklets some flavour and were widely read in train stations and airport lounges before the advent of smartphones. Detailed intaglio-printed images and watermarks the issuing state's landscape, fauna, historical events, and famous sons adorn the pages as an anti-forgery measure and decorative touch.

The PKPC requires that all content be printed at least in Kiravic and that all numerical data be printed in Coscivian numerals. Many states choose to print passport content in additional languages. The languages used are most often the official or co-official languages of the state and standard for all passports, but some states allow applicants to select which additional languages will appear on their passport (Enscirya, for example, allows its citizens to choose any living Ĥeiran Coscivian language, [Urom language], or Taństan). Vrykrovan passports are printed in Kiravic and High Coscivian, even though High Coscivian is not an official language in the state.

Issuance and Eligibility
Civil registration and the issuance of internal passports is the responsibility of the federal subjects - states and territories, federal districts, overseas provinces and possessions, and Urom tribal authorities. Kiravian nationals may be issued a passport by the federal subject in which they reside, or by the one where they have registered domicile. Legal residents who are not Kiravian nationals may only receive passports from the federal subject where they reside. Persons present in Kiravia on non-immigrant visas and illegal aliens are not eligible for passports.

Kiravian nationals may register their domicile anywhere in the Federacy with a valid postal address, and can easily transfer their registration by mail or online, so it is not unheard of for Kiravians to be registered in places they have never even been to. Domestic passports, on the other hand, must be obtained in person (though some jurisdictions allow renewal by mail). As such, most Kiravians who permanently resettle in another state/territory will eventually end up with a passport from their state/territory of residence, even though most do not transfer their registered domicile. However, it is very common for states or territories to have significant minorities of residents who hold passports from neighbouring states, especially where metropolitan areas spill across state boundaries. As an extreme example, in the District of Coīnvra (which is 270km² large and surrounded by the states of Hanoram and Ventarya, into which the Kartika suburbs extend) only 42% of residents hold Coīnvran passports and only 16% of residents have registered their domicile there.

The Federal government issues internal passports for special classes of persons, such as military personnel, military dependents living at overseas bases, and residents of minor possessions administered directly by the Federal government (e.g. New Ardana Island). During the Confederal Period and the early years of the Federacy, the national government issued special internal passports for government agents travelling on official business. Today this continues only for constitutional executive officers (Prime Executive, Second Executive, Emergency Backup Executive) and judges of the Federal Consistory.

Minors become eligible for youth passports at 14 or 15, depending on the jurisdiction. These expire at the end of the month following the holder's seventeenth or eighteenth year. Subsequent renewal periods vary by jurisdiction: Some are based on fixed numbers of years from the issue date, others from the holder's age, or a combination of both.

Passports belonging to convicts on work release from prison, remand, house arrest, or parole are confiscated and replaced with a "yellow passport" which may be marked as invalid for travel purposes. Issuing authorities may suspend or revoke passports with due process of the law. Historically this penalty was applied to people who committed treason or insurrection against the state or deserted from its militia. Today it is mostly applied to fugitives from justice and people who fail to comply with court orders while out-of-state (~70% for failing to make child support payments).

It is illegal in all federal subjects to hold more than one internal passport concurrently. However, groundbreaking research conducted by Lunarius Íander, Distinguished Lecturer in System-Gaming at Issyria State University demonstrates that "no one actually checks that shit. You think the unionised pencil-pusher at the county clerk's office has time to check against 77 state databases in a country with 1.15 billion people?" Íander claims to have obtained passports and motoring licenses from fourteen states, two territories, and the Interlake District as part of his struggle to escape authoritarian suppression of his basic human right to drive drunk.