From the micronation of Sealand, to the native American Iroquois League, to the the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, these passports are about as rare as a cheap flight in December.
The next time you’re at the airport about to board a flight, steal a look at what other passengers in line are handing over to immigration officials or airline staff.
You may just spot one of the world’s most obscure passports.
The world’s rarest passports have been revealed in a thread on Quora that’s as entertaining as it is insightful.
According one user on the thread, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta passport is the rarest in the world.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a Catholic organisation that doesn’t even control any territory. Yet it has diplomatic relations with 106 states and several other multilateral organisations such as the UN.
This modern biometric passport is issued to just a few hundred political officials.
However, this passport isn’t recognised by the US, UK or New Zealand.
Another obscure travel document is the yellow Iroquois League passport, which has been issued to a small number of confederacy members since at least 1923 and been both successfully and unsuccessfully used for international travel.
The Iroquois League consists of a confederacy of six American Indian peoples (Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora) which has around 125,000 members who mainly live in southern Ontario and Quebec and northern New York State.
Some other rare passports are those issued by micronations around the world, such as Sealand, just off the eastern shores of Britain, and the now defunct Principality of New Utopia in the Caribbean.
Find out what the most powerful passport in the world is here, and learn why different passports have different colours.
