Recently, I heard that TSCC demands that all their foreign missionaries surrender their passports, to their mission presidents, at the outset of their mission.

If so, what is the reason they give for doing this?

Now, what is the real reason they do it?

They tell you it is so you won't lose it or it won't get stolen that way...

The truth is they see it as a control methodology: they know you can't skip town and ditch your craptastic mission experience if you don't have a passport to get home with.

They took mine without my even knowing it when we were at the Irish government offices after we arrived in the country. It was kept from then on in a locked file cabinet.

I've told this story before, but my mission president sometimes gloated to missionaries that he "loved us too much" to allow us to go home early and be ostricized socially. I told him that I had my free agency and that he could not hold me there, and he said that I did not have my free agency because he had my passport. No lie. He said that to at least one other elder I knew as well. Of course, that was bull and we were young and stupid. If I'd had the courage to be disowned by my family, I could have gone to the American embassy and that would have been that. So, that was kind of a ridiculous threat.

I've heard that other foreign missions didn't hold passports though. So, I don't know if that's a church policy or not.

A visit to the US embassy might tend to change his mind about holding your passport. I think it's a federal crime.....

In all the nations I have visited, it is required by law that I bear my passport on my person at all times.

AMERICAN LURKERS: If you are currently a missionary and you were required to surrender your passport to your mission office, you are in violation of the laws of your host nation. Demand the return of your passport immediately. If you are refused, contact the nearest U.S. Embassy, report it lost, and get a replacement:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/lost/lost_848.html

If you report to the Embassy that your passport was stolen, you will be advised to contact local law enforcement authorities to report the crime - something you may not want to do unless you really have a case against your Mission President and want to cause him a $#!tload of trouble... :-)

Please go for option B, I beg of you.

Again, this depends a lot on the local laws. In Great Britain, if you are over there working, your employer is required to have your passport on file. In other places, it is your hotel or landlord. But in most places, it is the individual, and those others may only be required to have a copy.

They took ours when I was in Bolivia. Don't know about other missions.

United Kingdom in the 80's. I was dumb enough to believe the mission office when they said it was to make sure we didn't lose our passports.

I didn't get it back until the end of the mission and just a few hours before leaving for the airport.

I did, however, keep my drivers license with me. They didn't ask for it and I didn't offer to surrender it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2012 12:38PM by kookoo4kokaubeam.

Melbourne Australia, 1976....as soon as I arrived at the mission home they ask for and demanded that I turn over my passport and then locked it up in the safe with all the other missionaries passport. Never got it back until 2 years later the morning I was leaving for the airport to go home.

Hey davesnothere...if you were in Melbourne in 1976, we knew each other. I was there too. How do we contact each other?

Isn't this a "de-facto" kidnapping?

Isn't there some law against this, either from the "country of origin" or do the "countries of destination" each have different or no laws regarding this?

See my response to "rationalguy" above.

In the United States, if a Mission president took the passport from a missionary, from say, Haiti, then he would be guilty of a felony that technically falls under an anti-slavery statute.

Seriously, the American press, which doesn't know 1/1000 of what is said on here, is looking for stories on Mormonism like families for gallons of milk in a coming blizzard. A couple of people writing letters to the NY Times, for example, about the church regularly defying federal law on this would not go unnoticed.

I was in Korea in the 80's. About 6 months into my mission, we were told that we were to give our passports to the mission office so they wouldn't get lost/stolen. I wasn't happy about doing it and I always suspected it was about keeping missionaries from running off.

If the Norks had invaded during your mission, you would have been all shades of screwed.

In a way I have to admit this kind of makes sense. I can imagine a lot of irresponsible 19 year old boys would be rather prone to loosing their passports - which could cause some big problems.

On other other hand I definitely see how it is like being held hostage.

19 year olds are considered adults. Adults are expected to be able to handle little things, like hold onto their passports, and go through the hassle if they loose it. In fact, all the church would have to do, is instruct the missionaries serving in foreign countries, on what to do if they lost their passports.

Outside of Mormonism, 19 year olds are considered adults, who would be able to keep their own passport. Unfortunately, TSCC treats even adults as if they were children who lose things too easily.

From 1988 - 1990 the Oporto Portugal Mission maintained all missionaries' passports at the mission office. I was the Financial Secretary for about 10 months during that stint; unfortunately, during that period two young missionaries died in a traumatic car accident when they attempted to drive accross train tracks when a train traveling at a very high speed collised with them.

One of those missionaries was they guy had been my first companion (the "trainer"); some of the members shared with me newspaper accounts of the accident and I was surprised to read that the two missionaries had been identified by their passports - because I knew for a fact that their passports were in the mission office (as we were making arrangments to send personal effects back to their families - including their passports). I don't recollect anyone ever questioning the policy of surrendering the passport to the mission office; I believe we were told they would be replaced with a "residency card" (which were issued and provided to each missionary).

I was in Brazil in the 1970's. The mission president collected our passports on arrival -- I didn't see mine again until I left for home.

The mission office also kept our original Brazilian government identity cards -- the document we were required to carry at all times while in Brazil. We were given a copy of the card and a promise that if it were necessary to produce the original someone from the mission office would bring it to us. (Fortunately for me I was never arrested by the police so I never had to find out if the mission office would have delivered the document.)

In the Hamburg Mission, mid-80's, we kept our passports. Had to. West Berlin was part of the Hamburg Mission back then, and West Berlin was smack dab in the middle of East Germany. It would have been really difficult to send mishies through East Germany without a passport.

Someone should ask mitt if his wwas taken back in his draft dodging days.

My niece in Romania was told to keep her passport on her person at all times.

I refused to surrender my passport.
My reason was it is the only thing that I had to prove that I was legally in Argentina.
I took no crap and kept my passport.

I think you're all confused, they didn't "take" the passports away! They are simply holding them since, even though 19 year-olds are responsible enough to leave their families for 2 years with little to no contact, travel across the world and live on their own, they are certainly not responsible enough to keep a small blue book safe.

Sarcasm aside, and to be clear, looking back I think this is a terrible practice, I served in Korea in 1992. They "held" my passport in the mission office at that time. I was young and didn't even think about it. Probably even thought it was a good thing. Ironically, we did have to keep a small blue book that listed our foreign status on us at all times and had to register with the local municipality office so that the Korean Government could keep track of all in-country foreigners... So, that book we could keep, but not our passport...

I was in Ecuador from 87 to 89. They took my passport the minute we landed and gave us photo copies of certain pages. I got it back the morning I was coming home! I was never happier to receive something in all my life!

I was in the Philippines in the late 70's and my passport was held for the two years I was there. Rumor around the mission was that two missionaries somehow got their passports and took a quick plane ride to Hong Kong! Who can blame them, there was a McDonald's there!

The mission office didn't take ours in Germany. But German police could always ask for your identification, so you sort of needed it with you all the time. The police only asked for my papers once, but it certainly could happen.

So the country laws also make a difference.

I have to say I'm often annoyed that the press basically follows the church's PR template when reporting about missionaries. They emphasize the sacrifice and faith of the missionaries and the rules they follow, but they never really delve into what a mission is really like. I wish I could send out copies of my book to the press so they would at least they would know there is more to the story.