Conclusions

This article has attempted to address some of the prevalent misconceptions about e-passports. The e-passport system and its reader infrastructure has been constructed in a relatively short time, yet has received unprecedented global acceptance and attained interoperability, working in areas where errors can have profound consequences. The e-passport system is under constant evaluation and on-going monitoring for ways to make it better. We hope that the level of discussion can also move forward, based on new issues, not rehashing of old canards.

An excellent, in-depth article describing the history, interoperability and implementation of Machine Readable Travel Documents - entitled The History of Interoperability - is available via the ‘downloads/ technical reports’ section of the ICAO website. I gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance given by TF3 and TAG members in the preparation of this article.

 

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About the author

Mike Ellis

Mike Ellis, an electronics engineer, has been involved in machine readable passport printing and reading since 1982. He is CEO of Dynjab Technologies, which designs and manufactures passport readers. Since 1990, he has been a member of the ISO Working Group WG3 and an ISO delegate to the ICAO TAG/MRTD. On behalf of the NTWG, he drafted the first Technical Report on contactless ICs, which led to the development of the e-passport. Mike is currently involved in the Arabic transliteration initiative.