Why would your passports be collected on buses in Chile?
A colleague is travelling in Chile at present, and on a bus trip from San Pedro de Atacama to Arica, the bus driver insisted on collecting and holding on to all their passports for the duration of the trip.
There were no border crossings during this time, and the reasons behind this collection was not explained. Can anyone shed some light on this behaviour? I've certainly experienced it before on border crossing trips, but not within a country...
Best Answer
I just talked to my friend, who used to live in Chile. He (a Bangladeshi citizen) traveled a lot in this very route.
According to him, this is a very unusual case. He never faced something like that.
Even crossing border (for Peru, or Argentina), sometimes there's no need to show passport. Also, no visa required.
I guess the driver had "something" on his mind ... ;)
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Answer 2
I live in Chile and you are not legally forced to carry your passport anywhere if you stay in Chile.
You will need some form of identification though, in case the police wants to see your ID, and the only legal one for foreigners is the passport.
What the driver did is illegal.
The best advice is to always carry a photocopy of your passport and handle that if not the police is asking for your ID.
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