Historical Review of Uruguayan Passports

While the collection and review of all Uruguayan passports issued from 1918 to the present continue, I encourage you to review a set of passports that most clearly demonstrate the changes over time. I have investigated passports issued to natural citizens and naturalized citizens, also called legal citizens, for the many years I have obtained passports. The current collection shows a clear history of Uruguayan passport practice and provides insight into the Uruguayan nationality of Uruguayan legal citizens.

Because the practice of issuing passports, under customary international law and in light of the Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs, is one of the key activities a nation undertakes on behalf of its nationals, it is a helpful way to determine whether Uruguay formerly treated legal citizens as nationals and later, in 1994, arbitrarily withdrew that designation. Indeed, in 1994, Uruguay labeled its naturalized citizens, called legal citizens, as foreigners for the first time in its history.

A selection of the collected passports subject to the current historical review of Uruguayan nationality practices is available online.