An UNMIK Travel Document was a passport-sized document issued to residents of

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

, who were not able to obtain a

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the perso ...

from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, for the purpose of foreign travel. The document was issued by the

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is the officially mandated mission of the United Nations in Kosovo. The UNMIK describes its mandate as being to "help the United Nations Security Council achieve an overall ...

(UNMIK) from 2000 to 2008. After the government of Kosovo started to issue their own passports, the UNMIK ceased issuing them. Existing documents retained their validity until expiry (the last ones expired in 2010). The travel document was not a passport as it did not contain information on

Nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is th ...

and as it was not issued by a sovereign state. The document carried ''UNMIK travel document/titre de voyage'' on the cover, contained 32 pages and was valid for two years. The document contained a machine readable strip. As the issuing authority was the UNMIK, the document had the official three-letter code "UNK" where normally the country code is placed. The document was the only other travel document issued by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

besides the

United Nations Laissez-Passer A United Nations laissez-passer (UNLP or LP) is a diplomatic travel document issued by the United Nations under the provisions of Article VII of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations in its offices in New ...

, which is mainly issued to employees of the UN and its specialised agencies.

Limited acceptance

As the status of Kosovo was and remains controversial, the document was not widely accepted. For those countries that did accept it, its non-passport status sometimes restricted its applications. For example, although the US did accept the UNMIK Travel Document, it did not place visa stickers in the document itself, but on a detached sheet.

Notes

References

{{Passports

Government of Kosovo United Nations Mission in Kosovo United Nations documents