Irish students in the US are risking jail by doctoring their passports to get served alcohol, and risking detention by customs when they try to return home on a damaged passport
THIS WEEK, the Union of Students in Ireland reported that Irish students spending the summer in the US on J1 visas are encountering difficulties after doctoring their passports to appear over the legal drinking age of 21. According to USI president Gary Redmond, students have been scanning the photo page of their passport and Photoshopping the date of birth. They then print and laminate it before affixing it to the existing photo page in their passport.
“Even though the passport might look okay when you take [the laminate] back off, the damage will show up if you try to scan that in a machine or put it under a UV light,” says Redmond. “The customs agent will know it’s been tampered with in some shape or form.”
The popularity of the passport tampering technique, says Redmond, is due to a clampdown on the forms of ID accepted from Irish students in states such as California.
“Obviously, when one student does something it spreads quite quickly because they tend to live together. One concerned parent who called the USI said her daughter and 15 friends had done it, so that gives you some idea of how widespread it is.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that consular assistance had been sought by a small number of Irish J1 students over the issue. In one case, a student was detained by customs, though the Irish consulate in San Francisco intervened and no arrest was made.
“Any mark or nick on a passport is grounds to refuse permission to travel and could jeopardise future travel plans,” says the spokeswoman. Tampering with or falsifying a passport is a criminal offence in Ireland but it’s a federal offence in the US, where individuals found guilty of passport fraud face a minimum 10-year sentence even without previous convictions.
“Of course, some students may say they have lost their passport or that it’s been stolen rather than admit they have tampered with it,” she says. “There’s nothing we can do about that. Our priority is to get them a replacement passport so they can make their flights.”
Daniel, a 20-year-old currently on a J1 visa in New York, says that everyone he knows under the age of 21 has a fake ID of some kind. “I’m pretty good at Photoshop, so I made a fake Irish driving licence,” he says. “I scanned my friend’s one, altered it and printed it out on pink paper, then signed it. I just laminated it using the stuff you cover books with.” Other popular tricks, he adds, involve borrowing the ID of someone who looks even vaguely similar or hoping that an American will mistake 01/12/1990 as being the 12th of January 1990.
Ciarán Breslin, a 20-year-old English student at UCD who recently returned from New York, knows someone who availed of a passport-doctoring service in Boston. “You couldn’t tell the difference unless you really knew what you were looking for,” he says. “It cost $100 and it consistently worked for him throughout the summer. He never got caught, although he was well aware of the implications.”
Breslin had no difficulty getting served in New York and believed he didn’t need a fake ID, though he understands the appeal. “There’s a general air of mild indignation or scorn among the Irish out there at the age limit, and everyone is up for doing our best to get around it by whatever creative means necessary. That said, the vast majority of people I know would not entertain the idea of permanently altering their passport. It definitely doesn’t seem worth it.”
A long tradition
It’s not new for Irish students on J1 visas to fake IDs to get around the over-21 policy on alcohol sales in the US. Two former students recall their forging methods.
Carl (active years 1993-94)
“I was doing a graphic design course and I had access to a laminating machine and colour printer. I must admit I doctored a few passports, but back then it was easier because the passports had handwritten details and were fairly flimsy. All you had to do was copy the pattern of the paper, put in a different date of birth and reapply it as a small laminated square over the original. It peeled back off easily. I’d also do fake driving licences and student IDs, mostly for J1 trips, and while they were crude, they’d work more often than not. But it was a different time in terms of security, and we were lucky to get away with it. It’s amazing the lengths we’ll go to for a drink.”
Tom (active years 2007-08)
“In my first and second years in college, my friends and I got a template of the Irish driving licence. We’d get an upfront payment and a photo from the customer, then print off the front and back, making alterations before laminating it and folding it. We set up a Bebo site, just hinting about it, and sold huge amounts at €70 each. The American bouncers didn’t really know what the Irish driving licence looked like. But then bouncers in New York seemed to be getting wise to it, and we decided it was better to quit while we were ahead.”
