passport

Etymology

From French passeport, from passer (“pass”) + port (“port”). Compare portpass. Equivalent to pass + port.

noun

1. An official document normally used for international journeys, which proves the identity and nationality of the person for whom it was issued.
   You will have to bring your passport to prove who you are.
   Dagobert gave him back his passport. He re-pocketed it indifferently; a talisman which had lost its potency. 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 17, in Crime out of Mind
2. (by extension, informal) Any document that allows entry or passage.
3. (figurative) Something which enables someone to do or achieve something.
   The tenor's voice was his passport to the international concert circuit.

verb

1. To regulate how money given to a local authority must be spent.
   Did we not pass an Act last year which passported the money directly through to the schools and gave local authorities very little discretion? 2002, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Lords official report
   They are talking about whether the money that goes into district councils ends up getting passported through to the operators through concessionary fares. 2011, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee, Bus services after the Spending Review
2. Providing the legal requirements to enable or legitimize cross-border economic activity.
   Apart from the condition in (ii), which may easily be overcome via an agreement between the depositor and the bank, European legislation does not preclude the entry of Islamic financial undertakings on the internal market at EU-based credit institutions because banking directives allow European credit institutions to perform not only the core banking business, but also passported activities according to the principle of mutual recognition and home country control. 2019, Gabriella Gimigliano, “Financial Undertakings, Sharīʿa Rules, and the Internal Market Framework: Challenges and Opportunities”, in Mohyedine Hajjar, editor, Islamic Finance in Europe, page 38
   Also, in this context, rules are different in relation to passporting the asset managers' activities, or the product […] 2019, Federico Fabbrini, Marco Ventoruzzo, Research Handbook on EU Economic Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, page 508
   She was announcing that a “draft law on criminal liability for forced Russian passporting” had been approved, which was “aimed primarily at punishing the organisers of hostile passporting and their accomplices”. 2022, The Guardian
3. To enable eligibility for a benefit automatically based on eligibility for a different benefit.
   At present, recipients of Working Tax Credit who are not also in receipt of Child Tax Credit are automatically passported to a full fee remission in some courts and tribunals, and those in receipt of Working Tax Credit and in receipt of child tax credit are passported in others (see annex B). 2013, Great Britain: Ministry of Justice, Fee Remissions for the Courts and Tribunals, page 16