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Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

The essence of the (flawed) argument Jacques is making is in his passport section

  I need permission from my government if I want to leave
  the country.

Oddly, that's not true. A passport is necessary to get into a country, not leave one. The distinction is subtle but important. You can if you wish as an adult, leave the country you are in, and if they will let you in, enter another with a different set of obligations. At worst you can just bob around the Atlantic in a bath tub for a bit.

The whole set of complaints boil down to, are there other countries which have a better setup than the country I am in? Can I go now?

The answer for anyone in the West is of course, not such that you would notice. And yes, no-one is stopping you. (But I would not recommend the bathtub option)

Edit: I just realised that it could read as "well if you dont like it F off." It honestly was not meant like that - but its hard to reword the whole comment now.

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Oddly, that's not true. A passport is necessary to get into a country, not leave one.

Not true for me, at least. I live in Poland, which means I get passport-free travel (and ID-card free, for that matter) within the EU Schengen Area, but not when visiting my home country, the UK, since it's outside the Schengen area.

To visit the UK, I have to go via the scary ladies and gentlemen in glass booths with big guns strapped to their sides and show my passport (or ID card if I had one). I've travelled a few times to other countries outside the Schengen area, and each time the only way to get to the gate is via these booths. I'm pretty certain that there's no opt-out.

Poland's not alone in this; plenty of countries check your passport on departure. Last one I remember is Turkey, pretty sure when I was in India and Tunisia similar happened.

That's because governments are widely agreed that the "sender" country is responsible if passenger has no right to enter "receiver" country. So to avoid the hassle, it's mandatory to check your passport when you leave Poland, but not whether you have right to leave Poland...

You need a passport to leave Australia. Australia has immigration on exit. Though, that is the only place I've seen this.

For me, it is the other way around: US and Canada don't check your passport at exit and when that happened to me for the first time I had to ask airport employee just to make sure I did not take a wrong turn or something. All of EU, All Latin America countries I've been to, Russia and Ukraine check passports and there were and still are countries that you cannot leave without explicit permission from governement (eg North Kirea and Kuba).

Ive been through quite a few customs on leaving a country, typically when there is a fixed time limit you are allowed to stay on certain visas

I was working in Brazil on a fixed-term visa and presenting my passport upon entry and exit was my proof that I hadn't spent more than 90 days in the country.

Curiously, the government contract I was helping with ended when the project's assets were seized as part of an investigation into government corruption. Millions of Real worth of equipment is sitting locked in an evidence locker instead of benefiting society.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure all governments are flawed to one degree or another.

Most countries that require a passport for entry also require one for exit. Otherwise there would be no control to stop people from fleeing the law.

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