Biometric passports 101

Biometric passports are now a standard travel document, issued by 172 nations worldwide in accordance with the ICAO Machine Readable Travel Documents standard. They serve as one of the most widely recognized identity credentials globally.

Each biometric passport includes a Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ), which contains an RFID chip. This chip securely stores data for biometric verification, personal information, the passport's expiration date, and the issuing authority’s digital signature.

To verify the passport’s validity, the verifier reads the MRZ using an NFC scanner, checks the issuing authority’s digital signature, and confirms the expiration date.