Checking a US passport card: 4 checkpoints

The U.S. passport card is an optional national identity document, as well as a travel document issued by the U.S. federal government, in the format of a credit card.

This card allows the holder to travel on domestic flights within the United States and to travel by land or sea within North America. However, it cannot be used for international air travel ( source Wikipedia).

So, how do you check an American passport card and make sure that the piece presented is authentic? Find out in this article!

The first step in verifying an American passport card when you can access the original part is the overall appearance of the document: it must not show any trace of cutting, removal, modification / rectification of any kind.

Pay particular attention to the level and around the photo.

The new passport card is in ID-1 format, the size of a bank card, like the new biometric identity cards, for example.

Second step to verify a US passport card online: check the consistency of the information on the document.

The document number can be found in two different places: on the upper part of the front and in the first line of the MRZ strip.

Both must be identical:

Here again, the cardholder’s date of birth can be found in two distinct places: in the middle of the front of the card, and at the beginning of the second MRZ line in YYMMDD format:

The same goes for the first and last names, which can be found on the front of the card and in the third line of the MRZ stripe:

The gender of the holder is symbolized by “M” for men (male) and “F” for women (female). This information can be found on the front and in the second line of the MRZ strip:

Finally, the last element present in duplicate on the card: the expiration date, which can be found on the front as well as in the second line MRZ in YYMMDD format:

The lower part of the American passport card is made up of three lines that contain the information on the card, with validation keys that prevent misreadings or forgeries.

1. Document Type : 2 characters, code indicating the type of document, represented by the letters “IP”.
2. Issuing country : 3 characters, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the issuing country, for the United States it is “USA”.
3. Card number : 9 characters, unique card number.
4. Control key: 1 character, control key for the card’s unique number.
5. End of line : 15 characters, internal administration codes with chevrons ” < ” to complete the line.

1. Date of birth : 6 characters, year, month and day of birth in YYMMDD format.
2. Control key: 1 character, control key for date of birth.
3. Gender: 1 character, “M” for male, “F” for female.
4. Expiry date: 6 digits, card expiry date in YYMMDD format.
5. Control key: 1 character, expiry date control key.
6. Country code : 3 characters, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the holder’s nationality (in this case USA).
7. Separation: 2 rafters <
8. State Department Document Control Number : 9 characters, State Department Control Number.
9. Control key : 1 character, character concatenation control key line 1 6-15, line 2 1-7, line 2 9-15.

1. Holder’s name and first names : the holder’s first and last names, starting with the last name followed by the first name. The surname and the first name are separated by two characters <. In the case of a compound surname, a compound given name, or multiple given names, they are separated by the character <. Spaces and apostrophes are replaced by the character < and the name is truncated to 30 characters if necessary, and any accents on the letters are removed. The line is then completed by the character <.

A US passport card has 4 control keys (or security keys) that allow you to validate the information that precedes them.

They help avoid transcription errors or changes, whether intentional or not.

The algorithm used to create and validate the control keys is common to all identity documents: the characters have a weight, which is multiplied by a factor according to their position in the chain (7, 3 and 1).

The numbers have their own value (“0” is 0, “1” is 1 etc up to “9” which is 9), the chevron “<” also has a value of 0 while the weight of the letters starts at 10 for the letter “A”, 11 for the letter “B” up to 35 for the letter “Z”.

Let’s take the specimen’s date of birth control key above as an example.

The string to be validated is “810101”.

To calculate the control key, we will proceed as follows:

– “8” has a weight of 8 and is placed in the first position, so it must be multiplied by 7: 8 * 7 = 56

– “1” has a weight of 1 and is placed in second position, so we must multiply it by 3: 1 * 3 = 3, which we add to the previous 56, i.e. 3 + 56 = 59.

– 0 has a weight of 0 and is located in the third position, so we must multiply it by 1: 0 * 1 = 0, which we add to the previous 59, i.e. 0 + 59 = 59.

– 1 * 7 = 7 and 7 + 59 = 66

– 0 * 3 = 0 and 0 + 66 = 66

– 1 * 1 = 1 and 1 + 66 = 67

We therefore get a total of 67, from which we will extract the modulo 10 (the remainder of the Euclidean division by 10), which is equivalent to keeping only the last digit, i.e. “7”.

Our control key is therefore valid because it is indeed 7 that appears on the document!

The document has various security features to validate its authenticity.

This is the last step to verify a US passport card, as it is the longest.

A new-generation holographic device is used to protect the cardholder’s photograph.

The latter changes color depending on the orientation:

An electronic chip is implanted in the card, enabling contactless reading of the information on the document.

The image is changing depending on the orientation of the map.

This device can be found on the front, at the top left of the map:

Some elements are only visible under ultraviolet rays, but this requires specialized equipment (so not suitable for checking a US passport card online).

The ink changes color depending on the orientation.

You now have all the keys to verify a US passport card online and make sure it’s authentic!

No need for specialized equipment: a little vigilance, time and you will be able to avoid most of the fraud that can be encountered on a daily basis!

Finally, if you need to verify the authenticity of documents as part of a rental application, we offer a dedicated service at the following address: