At last, after a long, long drive and tens of checkpoints we reach the entry point to Erbil province, where the capital city of Kurdistan – Iraq, the city of Erbil is situated.

After looking at our "Baghdad" number plates, we are waivedby the security force manning the checkpoint to a secured area to our right where there was a large, covered search-checkpoint where tens of cars take turn in being searched in three parallel lanes.

Oh, it's just a checkpoint, I thought.

We drive in, stop the car, and are told to take our papers – all of us, and walk over to the sheds, about a hundred meters away. I hoped we would be on our way quickly, the tourism season was over and it was gray and cold. There was only one family before us in line.

First window: The officers behind the desk asked us for identification.

Then they asked us how we were related to each other and demanded proof: if we were work colleagues: show proof, and what is your mission? – If it was a married couple: show contract – If it was a family: show ration card. After we showed our proofs, we were waved to another window.

Second window: The information was entered by an officer at this desk into a database. He waited a bit and waved us to another window.

Third window: The officer entered some more information into his computer and waited for a while and waved us to yet another window.

Fourth window: The officer wrote out a slip of paper, put our names on it, asked us for the duration of our stay, and recorded that on the slip too. He entered this information into his computer, handed over the permit and waved us to yet another window.

Fifth window: This senior officer looked us up and down, checked our information and then signed and stamped the permit.

AT LAST! We get to enter Kurdistan – Iraq.

At every checkpoint we passed through inside the Kurdish region, we were asked to show our permit and some form of identification with it. Our names would be compared to the slip and we would be waved on our way.

Leaving Kurdistan – Iraq, our slip was stamped by the last checkpoint we passed through before returning to the sheds once again. We handed over the stamped permit to the officer; he checked the date of the stamp from the last checkpoint, and sent us on our way out of the "region".

As we drove out of Kurdistan - Iraq, I wondered whether people coming into "the rest of Iraq" from that region would be processed the same way. But there were no sheds on the other side of that "border", no federal forces to check documents or give visiting permits for stated durations of time after thorough investigations.