Internal Passport

An internal passport is an identity document which is or was used in some countries to control the internal movement and residence of its people. Countries that currently have internal passports include Russia, Ukraine, China and North Korea.

When passports first emerged, there was no clear distinction between internal and international ones. Later, some countries developed sophisticated systems of passports for various purposes and various groups of population. Passports were used to control internal movements and residence of people in Imperial Russia, France, the Confederate States of America, the Soviet Union, the Ottoman Empire, South Africa during Apartheid and other countries.