Guide
SIM registration laws, and what they mean for a visitor
More than 150 countries now require some form of identification to activate a locally issued prepaid SIM. The rules vary in strictness, from a scanned passport page to a local address and tax number.
The three broad regimes
Strict: a passport plus local address or residency proof, common across the Gulf, parts of South and Southeast Asia and some of Latin America. Standard: a passport scan taken at the point of sale, which covers most of Europe. Light or unenforced: registration on paper, patchy in practice, which still means you cannot rely on it.
Each country page on this site carries a short note on the local rule and what arrival looks like, written for someone who wants data before they leave the airport.
Why roaming data sits outside the rule
Registration laws bind the local carrier issuing a local subscriber identity. A visitor roaming on an internationally issued profile is not a local subscriber, which is the same legal position as arriving with your home SIM in your pocket. That is the mechanism, not a loophole.
Questions people ask
Are there countries where this does not work?
A small number of states restrict or block foreign eSIM roaming. Where that applies, the country page says so plainly rather than selling you data that will not connect.
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