Machine-readable passport - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Machine Readable Passport (MRP) is a travel document where the data on the identity page is encoded in optical character recognition

Optical character recognition

Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...

format. Many countries began to issue machine readable travel documents in the 1980s.

Most travel passports worldwide are MRPs. They are standardized by the ICAO Document 9303 (endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization

International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...

and the International Electrotechnical Commission

International Electrotechnical Commission

The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...

as ISO/IEC 7501-1) and have a special Machine Readable Zone or MRZ, which is usually at the bottom of the identity page at the beginning of a passport. The ICAO Document 9303 describes three types of documents. Usually the passport is a Type 3 travel document.
The Machine Readable Zone of a Type 3 travel document spans two lines and each line is 44 characters long. The following information has to be provided in the zone: name, passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex, passport expiration date and personal identity number. There is room for optional, often country dependent, supplementary information.

Between 2003 and 2005 the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

progressively introduced regulations that make machine readable passports mandatory for those entering the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program

Visa Waiver Program

The Visa Waiver Program is a program of the United States Government which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. The program applies to the 50 U.S. states as well as the U.S...

. Travelers from Visa Waiver countries without machine readable passports must possess a US entry visa or they will be denied admission.

The advantages of machine readable passports include:

Faster processing of arriving passengers by immigration officials
More reliable than a human read, compared to the manually read passports that preceded them.

Passports

The data of the machine readable zone consists of two rows of 44 characters each. The only characters used are A-Z, 0-9 and the filler character <.

The format of the first row is:

positions	chars	meaning
1	alpha	P, indicating a passport
2	alpha	type (for countries that distinguish between different types of passports)
3–5	alpha	issuing country or organization (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest... code with modifications)
6–44	alpha	last name, followed by two filler characters, followed by given names

In the name field, spaces, hyphens and other punctuation are represented by <, except apostrophe

Apostrophe

The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...

s, which are skipped. If the names are too long, names are abbreviated to their most significant parts. In that case, the last position must contain an alphabetic character to indicate possible truncation, and if there is a given name, the two fillers and at least one character of it must be included.

The format of the second row is:

positions	chars	meaning
1–9	alpha+num	passport number
10	num	check digit over digits 1–9
11–13	alpha	nationality (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code with modifications)
14–19	num	date of birth (YYMMDD)
20	num	check digit over digits 14–19
21	alpha	sex (M, F or < for male, female or unspecified)
22–27	num	expiration date of passport (YYMMDD)
28	num	check digit over digits 22–27
29–42	alpha+num	personal number (may be used by the issuing country as it desires)
43	num	check digit over digits 29–42 (may be < if all characters are <)
44	num	check digit over digits 1–10, 14–20, and 22–43

The check digit calculation is as follows: each position is assigned a value; for the digits 0 to 9 this is the value of the digits, for the letters A to Z this is 10 to 35, for the filler < this is 0. The value of each position is then multiplied by its weight; the weight of the first position is 7, of the second it is 3, and of the third it is 1, and after that the weights repeat 7, 3, 1, etcetera. All values are added together and the remainder of the final value divided by 10 is the check digit.

Some values that are different from ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 are used for the issuing country and nationality field:

D: Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
GBD: British dependent territories citizen
British Overseas Territories citizen
The status of British Overseas Territories citizen relates to persons holding British nationality by virtue of a connection with a British Overseas Territory.-British Nationality Act 1981:...

(note: the country code of the overseas territory is presently used to indicate issuing authority and nationality of BOTC)
GBN: British National (Overseas)
British National (Overseas)
British National , commonly known as BN, is one of the major classes of British nationality under British nationality law. Holders of this nationality are British nationals and Commonwealth citizens, but not British Citizens...
GBO: British Overseas citizen
British Overseas citizen
In British nationality law, the status of British Overseas citizen is one of several categories of British national. A British Overseas citizen does not have an automatic right to live in the United Kingdom.-British Nationality Act 1981:...
GBP: British protected person
British protected person
A British protected person is a member of class of certain persons under the British Nationality Act 1981 associated with former protected states, protectorates, mandated and trust territories under British control...
GBS: British subject
British subject
In British nationality law, the term British subject has at different times had different meanings. The current definition of the term British subject is contained in the British Nationality Act 1981.- Prior to 1949 :...
UNA: specialized agency of the United Nations
UNK: resident of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

to whom a travel document
UNMIK Travel Document
An UNMIK Travel Document was a passport-sized document used to foreign travel for residents of Kosovo, who were not able to obtain a passport from Yugoslavia. The document was issued by the UNMIK from 2000 till 2008. After the government of Kosovo started to issue their own passports, the UNMIK...

has been issued by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United Nations. The mission was established on 10 June 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244...

(UNMIK)
UNO: United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

Organization
XOM: Sovereign Military Order of Malta
XXA: stateless person, as per the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
XXB: refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

, as per the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not...
XXC: refugee, other than defined above
XXX: unspecified nationality

Official Travel Documents (e.g. identity cards)

The data of the machine readable zone consists of three rows of 30 characters each. The only characters used are A-Z, 0-9 and the filler character <.

The format of the first row is:

positions	chars	meaning
1	alpha	I, A or C
2	alpha	type, at discretion of states, but 1-2 should be IP for passport card, AC for crew member and IV is not allowed
3–5	alpha	issuing country or organization (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest... code with modifications)
6–14	alpha+num	document number
15	num	check digit over digits 6–14
16-30	alpha+num	optional

In addition to ISO 3166-1 alpha-3

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest...

code with modifications used for issuing country in passports, also the following organization is accepted:

XCC Caribbean Community
Caribbean Community
The Caribbean Community is an organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies. CARICOM's main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy...

The format of the second row is:

positions	chars	meaning
1–6	num	date of birth (YYMMDD)
7	num	check digit over digits 1–6
8	alpha	sex (M, F or < for male, female or unspecified)
9-14	num	expiration date of passport (YYMMDD)
15	num	check digit over digits 9–14
16-18	alpha	nationality
19-29	alpha+num	optional (for U.S. passport holders, 21-29 may be corresponding passport number)
30	num	check digit over digits 6-30 (upper line), 1-7, 9-15, 19-29 (middle line)

The format of the third row is:

positions	chars	meaning
1-30	alpha	last name, followed by two filler characters, followed by given names

External links

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Passports

Official Travel Documents (e.g. identity cards)

See also

External links