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Posted By Matt Hilton
A question for those of you who work or visit france often.
A friend of mine has just returned from visiting a client in France. He was asked for his passport at the gatehouse to prove his identity, not a problem I hear you say BUT he was then told that he must surrender it to the security guard until he left site!
Needless to say my friend was not at all happy with this. He was told unless he left his passport he would not be allowed on site, after 30 mins of heated discussion they finally compromised on a photocopy.
At the end of the day on leaving site, another security guard could not find the photocopy!!
The last time he was in france was 12 months ago and they didn't have this rule. The security guard gave the impression it was a french regulation.
My questions are, is this a requirement of french law or a one off and what are your feelings about surrendering your passport just to get onto a site.
Either way I suppose I had better let my staff know about it.
Thanks in advance.
Matt
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Posted By Jim Walker
I visit many high security client sites in the UK.
My passport is the only thing they will accept as proof of identification. The driving licence thingy is accepted by a few but have not got around to acquiring one yet.
Never had to surrender it however.
Remember in continental Europe everyone carries an ID card, so I can see why your clients have a requirement.
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Posted By Salus
"Beware of fraud"
and check with the French Embassy
(all details are taken from the originals or copies and false passports made up)
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Posted By Mike
Surrendering your passport in exchange for a visitors ID badge is an extreme but effective method of visitor control that I have also seen in Belgium and Italy at European Commission sites. I found it disturbing the first time, particularly as my European colleagues saw nothing sinister about it, just as they see nothing sinister about hotel receptionists recording passport numbers.
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Posted By Merv Newman
It's a fairly normal practice. Actually they are looking for some official identification with your photo on it. For Brits that is going to be your passport. Other nations have photo ID cards and/or driving licence.
The site we went to this week took the id in exchange for a visitor badge AND we needed a token to get our car out of the locked visitor parking. And they wanted the serial number of my portable computer. And we were told to turn off our phones. And the guard house had images from at least 20 surveillance cameras.
Top secret ? Nah, they make bits for diesel engines.
Merv
The only problem I ever had was my fault. I drove straight past the guard house without stopping. They posted it back to me a few days later
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Posted By Philby'
Not a site, but a conference in Schwerin Germany last year we had to surrender our passports at reception...no big deal really, except that we had already surrendered them at the hotel!
So they had a laugh at my driving license photo instead
Philby'
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Posted By Matt Hilton
Many thanks for the responses.
I guess its a cultural thing, most of the people I have spoken to have reacted in horror to having to hand over their passport when in a foreign country. Probably something to do with not being able to get home !
At least now I know that this could occur within europe I can let my staff know, at least then it wont be such a shock.
Thanks again
Matt
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