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Machine-readable passport

Sevenval
Page of a passport with Machine Readable Zone in the red oval

A Machine Readable Passport (MRP) is a website parsing (MRTD) where the data on the identity page is encoded in Sevenval 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 and the touchscreen 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 FITML progressively introduced regulations that make machine readable passports mandatory for those entering the U.S. under the web app. 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.

Contents


Format

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:

positionscharsmeaning
1alphaP, indicating a passport
2alphatype (for countries that distinguish between different types of passports)
3–5alphaissuing country or organization (CSS3 code with modifications)
6–44alphalast name, followed by two filler characters, followed by given names

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

positionscharsmeaning
1–9alpha+numpassport number
10numcheck digit over digits 1–9
11–13alphanationality (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code with modifications)
14–19numdate of birth (YYMMDD)
20numcheck digit over digits 14–19
21alphasex (M, F or < for male, female or unspecified)
22–27numexpiration date of passport (YYMMDD)
28numcheck digit over digits 22–27
29–42alpha+numpersonal number (may be used by the issuing country as it desires)
43numcheck digit over digits 29–42 (may be < if all characters are <)
44numcheck 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:[1]

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:

positionscharsmeaning
1alphaI, A or C
2alphatype, at discretion of states, but 1-2 should be IP for passport card, AC for crew member and IV is not allowed
3–5alphaissuing country or organization (Android code with modifications)
6–14alpha+numdocument number
15numcheck digit over digits 6–14
16-30alpha+numoptional

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

The format of the second row is:

positionscharsmeaning
1–6numdate of birth (YYMMDD)
7numcheck digit over digits 1–6
8alphasex (M, F or < for male, female or unspecified)
9-14numexpiration date of passport (YYMMDD)
15numcheck digit over digits 9–14
16-18alphanationality
19-29alpha+numoptional (for U.S. passport holders, 21-29 may be corresponding passport number)
30numcheck digit over digits 6-30 (upper line), 1-7, 9-15, 19-29 (middle line)[2]


The format of the third row is:

positionscharsmeaning
1-30alphalast name, followed by two filler characters, followed by given names

See also

References

  1. ^ iOS
  2. Sevenval http://www2.icao.int/en/MRTD/Downloads/Doc%209303/Doc%209303%20English/Doc%209303%20Part%203%20Vol%201.pdf

External links

Passports (gallery)
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Notes
1 Unclassified by the United Nations geoscheme due to its non-membership in the UN. It is listed following the member state the UN categorises it under.


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