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Border Check is a free online document inspection game. You work a checkpoint booth in an invented country: each traveller hands over a passport, sometimes a permit, and states why they are here, and you decide whether the papers pass. On day one there is one rule — no expired passports. By day seven there are seven, every earlier rule still in force, so papers that were fine on Monday are a refusal on Sunday. The rulebook stays on screen the whole time, with today’s new rule marked and the approved nation list printed beside it, because the point is spotting the discrepancy rather than remembering the rules. Every traveller is built to break exactly one rule or none at all, so the thing you are looking for is always visible in a field on the page, and when you stamp wrongly the game tells you which rule you missed. The queue gets longer each day and the clock does not keep up. No download, no account.
How to play Border Check
- Read the traveller’s papers in the middle of the desk: the passport always, a permit when they have one, and the purpose they state at the booth.
- Check them against the rulebook on the left. Every rule in force today is listed, and the one added today is highlighted.
- Press Approve if the papers break no rule, or Deny if they break any. On a keyboard, A approves and D denies.
- The desk date is printed under the rulebook — that is what an expiry date is compared against.
- The approved nation list is printed too, and it gets shorter as the days go on, so read it rather than remembering yesterday’s.
- Every traveller breaks exactly one rule or none at all, so there is always one thing to find and never two.
- A wrong stamp costs a strike and the game tells you which rule you missed. Run out of strikes and the booth closes.
- The shift ends when the queue is done or the clock runs out, whichever comes first.
- Each day adds one rule and keeps all the earlier ones, so papers that passed yesterday can be a refusal today.
- New Shift gives you a different queue on the same day, with the same rules.
Tips
- Read the highlighted rule first. It is the one you have never had to check before, and it is the one you will forget.
- Check the two dates before anything else — an expired passport or permit is the fastest refusal to spot and takes no comparison.
- When a permit is present, put the two names side by side before reading anything else on it. A one-word difference is easy to skim past.
- A stated purpose of work with no permit at all is a refusal from day three. Train yourself to look for the missing document, not just a wrong one.
- Serial numbers are two letters then five digits. Count them rather than glancing — a bad one is either a digit short or has only one letter in front.
- The approved list shrinks every day, so a nationality you waved through yesterday may not be on it today.
- If everything checks out, stamp and move on. Roughly half the queue is clean, and time spent re-reading good papers is time taken from the next traveller.
- When you are told which rule you missed, look at where on the page it lives. The refusals repeat, and knowing where to look is most of the speed.
FAQ
Is Border Check free to play?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. All seven days are included and unlock as you clear them.
How does the rulebook work?
Each day adds one rule and keeps every rule from the days before, so day seven has seven rules in force at once. The whole list is on screen the entire time with today’s addition highlighted — the game is about reading papers carefully, not about remembering what you were told.
Can a traveller break more than one rule?
No. Every traveller is built to break exactly one rule or none, which is checked in the code rather than left to chance. That means there is always one discrepancy to find, it is always visible in a field on the page, and you are never asked to decide which of two problems mattered.
What happens when I stamp the wrong thing?
You get a strike and the game names the rule you missed — not just "wrong". On a day with several rules in force there would be no way to work it out afterwards, since the traveller has already left the desk.
What ends a shift?
Three things: processing the whole queue, running out of strikes, or running out of time. The queue grows and the clock grows more slowly, so the time you have per traveller falls every day even though the shift itself gets longer.
Are the countries real?
No. Every country, name, document and rule in this game is invented. Nothing here is modelled on any real country’s papers or entry requirements.
How many days are there?
Seven, each adding a rule: passport expiry, the approved nation list, work permits, matching names, permit expiry, serial format, and matching purpose.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a narrow screen the rulebook sits above the papers instead of beside them, and both scroll on their own so a long rulebook never pushes the buttons off the screen.