employment international
Can employer force me to handover my updated passport?
<p>I work for a EU organization internationally,
They have had my previous passport on file for more than a year, but it has expired last year: They are now requesting I send them my <strong>new</strong> passport &quot;to update the employee profiles&quot;</p>
<p>Due to Covid, I am currently in a different country than the one I was hired in (I might not have the proper permit) and not keen on sharing my new passport if I can prevent it.</p>
<p><strong>Can I push back on them? Can I refuse to provide an updated passport?</strong> (they had my valid passport - that eventually expired - on file)</p>

<p>Obviously you can refuse, nobody can force you to give them a new passport. There may be consequences.</p>
<p>The worst: The company's country likely has laws that require the company to make sure you have the right to work there, and to have evidence of it. If you are an EU citizen in an EU country, a valid EU passport would be that evidence. When your passport expires, the company might not have anything that is legally sufficient to allow you working for them. They could have the choice between breaking the law, risking a fine, or firing you.</p>
<p>This will depend on the exact laws of the country, and likely somewhere deep in the small print of the laws :-) In the UK, where this isn't relevant anymore, the laws were changed in 2014 to require that you have a <em>valid</em> passport. So in the last seven years you would have had to give them a valid passport.</p>
<p>BTW. Having a copy of your valid passport can make it possible for your employer to buy you flight tickets for foreign countries, for example, which could be useful. I was once in a situation away from home where I unexpectedly needed a copy of my passport (privately), called HR, and they emailed me a copy of it, so that was also useful.</p>
