Welcome to the website of Task Force 3, ePassports
Standards.Where would we be without them? In particular, where would we be without a standard for Travel Documents? Probably sitting at home!
In the old days a monarch would issue travellers with a large piece of paper guaranteeing their passage in foreign lands - can you imagine that working today, as a Superjumbo disgorges 853 passengers from 192 countries for immigration checks? Or as a cruise liner docks in an exotic island location; trucks queue to bring manufactures and produce; or as pilgrims stream across a land border?
Under the United Nations charter the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has the responsibility for international travel document standards, including passports, visas and official documents of identity when used for travel. ICAO has twin aims: facilitation and security, formulated in its standard Doc 9303.
Facilitation: standardising passports and visas means that border guards can easily find the information that they are seeking; making the documents machine readable further accelerates the process. The ordinary travelling public is the winner in this process, getting across borders with less hassle.
Security: standardising security features means that forged passports and visas can be detected - weeding out the undesirable criminals, drug couriers and illegal immigrants, and we hope the terrorists as well. Again, the ordinary travellers win again as the genuine security features in their documents confirm their identity and right to travel.
In the last few years, in response to increased demands, there have been exciting developments in the travel document standard. The introduction of an electronic chip to duplicate the visual data has led to unparalleled levels of security as encryption is added. The included biometric data means that it is now feasible to match the bearer of the document with the document itself, opening the way to automated border crossing. In all this the standard has been open and available to everyone!