Machine Readable Passport

Dark Phoenix

Hi,

I am travelling to america in June. I have a normal passport which is valid until 2010 but will need to get a machine readable one now. Please can anyone advise as to how I go about getting one? Can it be posted or do I have to go somewhere and queue?
Thanks

achbons

Hi there,

Don't worry, you can apply for one by post, no need to physically go in and queue anywhere! You can pick up forms in any garda station or post office, the post office have a Passport Express service that is pretty much the handiest way to do it, here's a link: http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/More+from+An+Post/Passport+Express/passport_express.htm

Hope that helps!

Ruu_Old

Unless it is super old, it is probably machine readable already (like the below sample). You can just use passport express to renew.

Dark Phoenix

Thanks a million. My passport was a ten year that I got in 2002 so I assumed it was not machine readable? I just don't want to end up like a friend who turned up to the airport only to be told hers was not right!

Ruu_Old

I got mine in August of 2001 and it is machine readable. From the US Embassy Dublin website.

How do I know if I have a machine-readable passport?

View sample Machine Readable Passport at top of this page. Travelers should also look at the bottom of their passport [the photo page] for two lines that are typeface lines, that have letters, numbers and hatch marks." The two lines at the bottom of a machine-readable passport, for example, would look like the following:

LINE 1: P COUNTRY LAST NAME << FIRST NAME < MIDDLE NAME <<<<<
LINE 2: PASSPORT NUMBER COUNTRY DOB<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Machine-readable passports allow data in the passport to be scanned automatically by a machine. The two lines of printed OCR-B machine-readable data (circled in red in the image of a U.S. machine-readable passport shown above) are the most noticeable features of a machine-readable passport. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not your passport is a machine-readable passport, you should check with the passport issuing authority of your country.

Viva La Gloria

Sorry to bump up such an old thread, but just had a MAJOR freak out about this. Flying to Florida on Tuesday and my friend announced this evening all of a sudden that there may be an issue with her passport. She got it in 2003 and it's a 10 year passport (she was 15 when she got it) and I checked up on it and found what the poster above mentioned. That as long as you have the series of numbers, letters and the >>>>> symbols at the bottom it constitutes as machine readable? She said that she has that on her passport. Although another friend worried me when she said you also had to have an embedded photo on the same page that you can see when you hold up to the light? But it doesn't mention that anywhere on either the dept. of foreign affairs website or the American Homeland Security website, so I suppose we're in the clear? ....blood pressure rising!

BuffyBot

It just needs to be machine readable as described above.

Viva La Gloria

That's fine then, I guess we're all set to go. literally.

Thanks!