I would like to ask RM's of foreign missions how many had their passports taken by the mission office for "safe keeping". Also, the location of the mission would be helpful. Having a discussion with a family member who says it doesn't happen.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2013 10:59PM by moira.

My passport was kept in the mission office. We only carried photocopies.

Japan Okayama 89-91

I was instructed to bring my passport to the zone conf. a couple of months after arriving in Japan (we needed to take out passports to our first areas in order to get our resident alien card). I took it to the zone conference, but nobody asked me for it, so I took it home. Then at the next conference, somebody came up to me and said "hey, did you give us your passport?" "Yes, I did already" I lied.

Then I realized that if I kept my passport, I was free to leave when I wanted to. I had a credit card and a passport. I could get home at the drop of a hat if needed.

It made the 2 years tolerable to know I wasn't stuck.

Ireland Dublin mission. Ours were taken away.

... designated for use to Kolob.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2013 11:12PM by steve benson.

Mine was taken away for the for the first six months. The reason given was that the mission home needed it in order to apply for my permanent visa. After six months, my passport was returned to me.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2013 11:14PM by misterzelph.

Brazil 98-00

Confiscated the entire mission, no photocopies.

Mission office took everyone's that arrived in my group. Took it for "safe keeping" as I recall. Can't have irresponsible teenagers running around losing such important documents in a foreign country. Transfers and such....we would lose it for sure. Next time I seen it was after the exit interview with MP on my way home. Can't believe I was so naive and let them do that. I was in Japan.

England Central Mission, 1970-72--passports kept at the mission home, "so they wouldn't be lost."

Mine was taken--Japan Sendai 2004-2006. Carried a photocopy (Japan also has foreign registration cards, but passports are mandatory so technically we were violating some kind of law or regulation).

taken away - as said for visa application - never received until I started tantrum
Houston TX 2002-2003


DH were also taken away for same excuses
Hamburg Germany 2000-2002

now I know from some active serving that this is still common.

I was in a multicountry French-speaking mission in Europe 81-83 so we had to keep ours so we could go across borders and register in our new cities (we had to show our legal status)

Not sure what the rules would be today

Was anything stated about this in the leaked Mission Presidents Handbook?

Argentina Neuquen Mission '02-'03. The first day I showed up in Argentina my passport was confiscated and I only saw it one other time 9 months later when I had to do paperwork (and it was confiscated after that one day)

Taiwan 78-80-Taken first day-return when I was ready to leave.

I wasn't a missionary, but I had a job I worked in Japan that required wearing a costume; I kept my passport close to my heart at all times...

Colombia Cali mission 1992-1994.

Surrendered it on arrival, never saw it again until the day I went home.

I was far too naive and brainwashed to even consider the question of whether or not that was appropriate.

They kept our passports at the mission office. We also had to apply for an Argentine identification document, which looked like a mini passport, as soon as we entered the country. I never received one due to transfers but had to carry around a paper receipt affirming my application for it.

Scary times during the coup that ousted Isabel Perón and the installation of a military dictatorship headed by Videla. In Tandil, the missionaries stayed at La Blanqueda, a government estate run by church members, for a few days during some of the political turmoil.

During my 21 months in country, I can only recall needing my document application two times: once, when our bus was pulled over (not a colectivo, a larger bus) by authorities checking documents and one morning before we left our boarding house as armed soldiers and plain clothes cops entered our rooms and asked what our purpose was to be in Argentina.

As if political dangers weren't enough two elders died from carbon monoxide asphyxiation in their pensión in Tandil and my comp and I almost died from a gas leak in the building our branch rented for church in Comodoro Rivadavia. We were inside cleaning the baptismal font on a weekday went we both started getting dizzy and made a quick exit to the street. We were both sick with severe headaches for at least a day afterward.

In my last months in Mar Del Plata, I became very sick with meningitis. They hospitalized me for three days in Clínica Cinco de Mayo, did a spinal tap, and shot me full of drugs, then sent me back to our pensión for a week's bed rest. When I finally saw my face, it was quite broken out (drug side effects?). Once the doctor cleared me to work again, I still had lingering photosensitivity in the daylight.

Finally, I returned two weeks early to attend winter block at BYU. I loved Argentina for its amazing landscapes and the kindness of the members but I must say, I was lucky to get out alive.

Munich Germany 78-80. We carried them at all times. We got our own residency permissions in each city (register / unregister). Also, to go back and forth from Austria and Germany. Oh, and our MP actually trusted us.

Portual Lisbon North - 96-98.

We gave up our passports during our orientation and got them back on our way out the door to go home. We did get photocopies.

During my last 6 months, I worked in the office and was responsible for taking the passports and copying them. I never asked why we did it. I assumed that the MP had a good reason.

I served domestically, but when I was a police officer, I was familiar with a couple human trafficking cases involving the Russian mob. They always took passports and greencards away from girls they brought over as housekeepers, "for safe keeping," because once they had those documents, they owned those girls. They couldn't go anywhere else to apply for work, couldn't get an apartment that wasn't owned by their contract company.

Another similarity, the Russian mob never put a gun to a girl's head, and told her she had to work prostitution. They didn't get them hooked on drugs either. Instead, they just applied constant pressure, and guilt, "look we did all these big favors for you, bringing you over here, and all we ask is you go on dates with rich American men, and show them good time. Why don't you want to help us? You owe us for giving you chance to come to America. We'll not charge you rent for your apartment next month if you do this so many times for us."

Wow, now it seems weird that I got to keep mine in Mexico.

In fact, non-citizens in Mexico were officially required to have passports on our person along with a valid visa at all times. Most of the guys that arrived with me didn't carry theirs, but because I'm Latino with a Spanish name and thus easily presumed to be a Mexican citizen, I had it in my shirt pocket almost every day for the whole time I was there.

I only got to use it once--I was stationed in Tijuana when my visa was up for renewal so I got to make a day trip to Chula Vista with some members and get new entry papers. Everybody in the Chula Vista mall thought I was Mexican and attended me in Spanish :)

Every missionary in Peru (72-74) had their passport taken away, stored in the Mission office and returned at the conclusion of their stay in Peru. My guess is the cult takes away the passports everywhere it is legal for them to do so or at least where foreign nationals are not required to have them on their person. It is a way of controlling the missionaries as well as safeguarding them. US passports can be stolen and sold for hundreds of dollars, making them valuable. I would never give it up now, however.

Guys, taking the passport away is actually a good idea. On the surface it may seem a bit "Kim Jong-il"-ish, but how many missionary apartments are burglarized? Quite a few. Also, how responsible were you at 19-20? If you lose it sometime during your mission then go to board your plane on the way home...oops! Golly gee, I guess I'm stuck in country for a week or two until I can pay another $100 to get a replacement. Losing passports would happen much more frequently than you think.

It's immoral, and often times illegal. If someone loses a passport, that is a problem that can be fixed. If their passport is being held hostage by a mission president, then that is a problem that needs to be fixed.

I had mine taken away on my first day in the Taiwan Taichung mission 2005-2007. We did have a photocopy.

There was one kid determined to go home even though it would ruin my mission president's perfect record. After asking a million times for it, the kid told the mission president he was going to call the AIT (the quasi-US embassy in Taiwan) to report his passport as stolen. The kid was on a flight home shortly after that.

Mine was taken away for "safe keeping" for my whole mission. No photo copy. I was a bit nervous about it at first, but got used to it.

Australia, Sydney 1983-1984

Argentina Cordoba - I arrived in March '83 and they took all of our passports to put in the safe. I was shocked when the mission president told us to surrender our passports. I didn't think we were supposed to give them up to anybody for any reason. We got Argentine documents that we were required to carry with us at all times. But of course we could not leave the country. We did not have a photocopy of our passports either.

There was an elder who tried to go home early. He borrowed a bike (we all had to walk or take the bus everywhere - no cars, no bikes) and rode it to the bus station. He took a bus from Salta to Buenos Aires (24 hour trip). He got to the international airport. But of course they wanted him to show his passport and he didn't have it. He told them it was at the mission office in Cordoba. They called there to verify that and they MP sent the APs to Buenos Aires to pick him up and bring him back. He decided to finish his mission in Argentina.

I got my passport back when I was transferred to a stateside mission. When I arrived at my new mission, they didn't say anything about passports at all and I kept it through the end.

I remember my brother in law said they took his. They said it was because the locals in russia (can't remember more specfic) would take the passport and put missionaries in jail for a couple days.

So they kept them for safe keeping.