Machine Readable Travel Documents - ICAO

III-10 Machine Readable Travel Documents
Basic measures
— original portrait photographs and all digitally captured portrait images to be true likenesses of
the legitimate holder, and the image to be of the appropriate dimensions as specified in
Appendix 5 to Section IV.
— reproductions of the portrait and the holder’s signature to be true likenesses of the original and
if the signature is reduced in scale to fit the size of the field in the biographical data, the image
so reproduced shall be no less than 50 per cent of the original as specified in Section V,
paragraph 3.3 (td1) and Section VI, paragraph 3.3 (td2).
— training of Border Inspection Officers in detection techniques.
— thorough checking and cross-referencing of supporting identity documents prior to issuing a
travel document.
— maintained database of all documents issued nationally along with search and match capability,
where permitted by national legislation.
— maintained database of all lost, stolen, defective or other security-sensitive documents or
materials along with search and match capability.
Optional additional measures
— inclusion of a machine verifiable biometric feature linking the document to its legitimate holder.
— bilateral and multilateral agreements between States to share information on suspect
travellers/documents, where permitted by national legislation.
— full audit trail recording the document applicant’s identity.
— records interrogation capability at ‘ports of entry’ with access to application form, photo and
supporting identity documents, where permitted.
6.2 Other security-related issues
In addition to the security features identified above, the following factors related to the production and
configuration of the travel document also contribute to the overall security of the document. This section of the
Appendix aims to give guidance to States on these issues.
6.2.1 Protection against theft and abuse of genuine document blanks or document components
The most effective method of protecting against the illegal issue of stolen blank travel documents is to
centralize the issuance process. Where travel documents continue to be issued on a regional or decentralized
basis, appropriate security measures should be taken in terms of logistics, administration and personalization
techniques. This applies particularly to the storage of blank documents and the means of personalization (e.g.
access to personalization systems). Blank documents should be stored in locked and appropriately supervised
premises. The following measures should be adopted: