Rossan passport

Rossan Passport
A blank, unfolded 4-year passport.
Type	Passport
Issued by	Department of the Peace (domestic) Department of Foreign Relations (international)
First issued	61 PC
In circulation	7 million
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility	Permanent Rossan resident, or citizen of any country which maintains Rossan Foreign Offices
Expiration	1 year (travel) 4 years (residency)
Cost	32ꕥ

Rossan passports are legal documents issued to all Rossan residents and prospective entrants into the country by the Government of La Rossa, introduced in 61 PC. Entrance into and exit out of the country is illegal without a passport. Their issuing is jointly managed by the Department of the Peace and the Department of Foreign Relations, as they can only be obtained at municipal buildings in La Rossa (all city-provinces are required by law to provide their issuing) or in Foreign Offices in nations that maintain strong diplomatic relations. Due to the system's functioning, citizens of foreign nations are required to obtain a Rossan passport in order to enter the country. As a number of nations have not opened a Rossan Foreign Office as of yet, movement from those countries has slowed and mostly amounts to illegal migration.

The Rossan passport serves as the primary identification document used by the national government, serving as proof of residency for the purpose of eligibility to social and government programs, as well as work and employment. The passport is issued in two tiers, a 1-year travel passport and a 4-year work and residency passport. The former, which requires only basic background checks, gives applicants the right to visit the island, but restricts their right to working, residing and voting there. The work and residency passport necessitates much more thorough background examinations, but makes employment and living on the island freely possible, though a person may still be deported back to their home nation in case of violent or otherwise illicit behavior. Following four years of stay, a passport holder is entitled to all of the rights permanent residents hold, including the right to vote and freedom from deportations. Permanent residents are entitled to be issued a passport by their municipal government unconditionally, though a legal document (including expired passports) may be required to prove their status.

History

The introduction of passports followed 20 years of rising discontent against the Rossan Opening, and rising calls for a return to isolationism and autarky by the Isola party. Passports were created during the second Duxal reign of Giulio Moretti in 61 PC, in efforts to bring about constraints in the previously unrestricted immigration system, without fully ending migration to the island. The passport system was designed with La Rossa as the sole issuer of the permission to visit and reside on the island, while causing minimum disruption to already existing residents. The need for such a document came only following the Calming that swept the island, and so few international examples of passport systems existed. La Rossa's, however, was still highly unconventional, being issued for the purpose of visits to La Rossa rather than visits to other nations.

Since their introduction, visits and immigration to the island fell by around 12% within their first year, due to friction associated with obtaining the document and the fact that not all nations issued one. Internationally, the passport is only issued in Foreign Offices, institutions akin to smaller embassies that exist to provide help for Rossans abroad and issue passports to citizens of other countries. However, not all nations maintain such institutions, even among those that hold diplomatic relations with La Rossa, making it so that entrance is not possible for residents of certain countries. Prospective visitors may still reach La Rossa by travelling through a different country first, where they are able to have a document issued, though it is more common for travel to be made illegally. Such travel is most frequently facilitated with the help of criminal organizations. Entrants to the country that do not have a passport may be left in a state of legal limbo, unable to achieve permanent residency or a passport that would allow them to work legally without the risk of deportation. As a result, it is not infrequent for victims of human trafficking operations to end up in the employment of black market businesses that do not obey national labor laws, trapping them in poor working conditions and poverty.

Layout

The Rossan passport is a foldable, three-page document. The front states the type and length of the passport's validity, as well as the place of issuing and the responsible officer. The middle page includes a blank spot for the attachment of photographs, used to identify the passport holder. Though photographs are mandatory, they are not standardized in form or size, though a photograph generally has to be clearly identifiable as belonging to the holder. Below it, a section contains a short description of the holder, including sex, height and facial characteristics, and the holder's name and signature. The back page includes the date of issue and the date of expiration. The date is usually written in Rossan numerals, but it may also additionally be written in the international Haracalnde date format for understandability to international holders.

As passports are required to be issued to foreign visitors, but are of use only to Rossan officers, the document is written entirely unilingually in the Rossan language. As a result, foreign names are often heavily changed in order to fit within the confines of the Rossan script, leading to them often being left to the mercy of the issuing officer.