When you travel with your laptop, passing through security can be a nightmare. This is especially true for international travel. Your laptop may be hand checked. This means that you are asked to turn on the laptop and show the security person that it is indeed a functioning laptop.

A question asked on your return trip may not have a ready answer. That is to prove where the laptop was purchased. If the laptop appears to be new, the security person may want to know if the machine was purchased in a foreign country and therefore subject to taxes and duties in order to bring it into the traveler’s country of origin.

Proving that the laptop is not a new purchase is not something that most travelers keep in mind. The consequences might be that the laptop is held until proper documentation is present. It is simply a huge annoyance. It means finding proof of purchase. Do you know where your laptop purchase receipt is?

One way to avoid this is to document your laptop. Your laptop can have its own travel documentation. Before leaving your country of origin with the laptop, have the customs people provide you with documentation. This varies from country to country but it consists of paperwork with the identifying serial number of the machine and a customs stamp on that documentation. In essence, with that paperwork, your laptop has identifying information with which to travel. Therefore, if (and when) you are asked about where the the laptop was purchased, you can prove that this particular machine was with you when you started your trip. It is proof of ownership prior to leaving the country.

If you travel with other expensive electronics, you might consider this procedure to prove having ownership before leaving your country of origin. It may seem like another bureaucratic hoop to jump through, but the consequence of not having the documentation is more annoying by far.

Catherine Forsythe