Originally Posted by Tu.144
... the photograph on the passport used needs not be the original one...
The photo together with name and biographic details are chemically etched into the main page of all EU passports these days, they are extremely difficult to forge without having access to the actual production machinery (hence EU replacement passports are not issued by embassies any more, they have to be produced at a secure facility in he home country). I would rather assume that whoever was doing this was playing on the fact that to Asians all roundeyes look the same, just like in Europe I doubt that many immigration officiers would be able to tell apart two Asians with a broadly similar face based on a small passport photo possibly taken 6-8 years earlier.