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Machine Readable Travel Documents

Travel Documents Types

Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD)—official document, conforming with the specifications contained in Doc 9303, issued by a State or organization which is used by the holder for international travel (e.g. MRP, MRV, MROTD) and which contains mandatory visual (eye readable) data and a separate mandatory data summary in a format which is capable of being read by machine.

Machine Readable Official Travel Document (MROTD)—a document, usually in the form of a card of TD1 or TD2 size, that conforms to the specifications of Doc 9303-5 and Doc 9303-6 and may be used to cross international borders by agreement between the States involved.

Machine Readable Passport (MRP)—a passport conforming with the specifications contained in Doc 9303-4. Normally constructed as a TD3 size book containing pages with information on the holder and the issuing State or organization and pages for visas and other endorsements. Machine readable information is contained in two lines of OCR-B text, each with 44 characters.

Machine readable zone (MRZ)—fixed dimensional area located on the Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD), containing mandatory and optional data formatted for machine reading using OCR methods. The data in the MRZ must be visually readable as well as machine readable.

Size 1: Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (TD1)

A card with nominal dimensions guided by those specified for the ID-1 type card (ISO/IEC 7810) (excluding thickness).

  • Example of a personalized TD1 size MROTD

  • Construction of the MRZ of a TD1 size MROTD

Note.— (*) Three-letter codes are given in Doc 9303-3.

Dotted lines indicate data fields; these, together with arrows and comment boxes, are shown for the reader’s understanding only and are not printed on the document.

Size 2: Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (TD2)

A card or label conforming with the dimensions defined for the ID-2 type card (ISO/IEC 7810) (excluding thickness).

  • Example of a personalized TD2 size MROTD

  • Construction of the MRZ of a TD2 size MROTD

Note.— (*) Three-letter codes are given in Doc 9303-3.

Dotted lines indicate data fields; these, together with arrows and comment boxes, are shown for the reader’s understanding only and are not printed on the document.

Size 3: Machine Readable Travel Documents (TD3)

  • Example of a personalized MRP data page

  • Construction of the MRZ of the passport data page

Note.— (*) Three-letter codes are given in Doc 9303-3.

Dotted lines indicate data fields; these, together with arrows and comment boxes, are shown for the reader’s understanding only and are not printed on the document.

Machine Readable Visas

A visa conforming with the specifications contained in Doc 9303-7. The MRV is normally attached to a visa page in a passport.

  • Example of a personalized MRV

  • Construction of the MRV

Note.— (*) Three-letter codes are given in Doc 9303-3.

Dotted lines indicate data fields; these, together with arrows and comment boxes, are shown for the reader’s understanding only and are not printed on the document.

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We also have an extensive article about MRZ in our blog. Feel free to explore it!

References

  1. Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents. Part 1 — Introduction.
  2. Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents. Part 5 — Specifications for TD1 Size Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (MROTDs).
  3. Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents. Part 6 — Specifications for TD2 Size Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (MROTDs).
  4. Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents. Part 4 — Specifications for Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) and other TD3 Size MRTDs.
  5. Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents. Part 7 — Machine Readable Visas.

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