Okuzeka
Immigration & Visas vocabulary · Border Control & Entry

Passport control

Meaning in immigration & visas, with examples

nounCore term

In immigration & visas, passport control means: The place at an airport, port or land border where officials check your passport and visa before you enter or leave a country.

In Turkish: pasaport kontrolü

How it is used

Signs say Passport Control, often with separate queues for citizens and foreign nationals. Many airports have e-gates where some passport holders scan their own passports. People say "go through passport control" or "clear passport control".

Example sentences

  1. The queue at passport control was so long that we nearly missed our connection.

  2. Non-EU passport holders should use the lanes on the left at passport control.

Common collocations

  • go through passport control
  • clear passport control
  • passport control queue
  • e-gates
  • border controlThe checks that officials make at a country's borders on people, documents and goods entering or leaving, and the area where these checks happen.
  • immigration officerA government official who checks travellers' documents at the border and decides, or helps decide, whether they may enter or stay.
  • customsThe government department, and the area at a border, where officers check the goods you bring into a country and collect any taxes on them.
  • entry stampA mark printed in your passport by a border officer showing the date and place you entered a country.
  • passportAn official travel document issued by your own country that proves your identity and nationality and lets you cross international borders.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Border Control & Entry

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not legal advice.