no expiration

Related to the post earlier today about local and expat staff, I remembered something else that can create problems for local staff when they try to travel overseas. The older Turkmen passports have no expiration date. Almost every country issues passports with a 5 or 10 year validity. (In the U.S., passports are good for 10 years unless you are under 16, then they are good for 5 years.) Until a couple years ago, Turkmenistan passports had no expiration date. Not having an expiration date means some visa applications cannot be completely filled out which then means the application cannot be processed. We had someone who recently was rejected because he still has an older passport without an expiration date. One more hurdle for locals to conquer.