what is a machine readable passport?

king_of_inismac

Hey guys,

I'm off to america in a few weeks, and I hear you need a machine-readable passport.

I have my passport for about 5 years now. How do I know if its machine readable?

Thanks,
Martin

amazingemmet

It won't machine readable if its five years old. But i think you can travel with it and the next time you renew it it will be machine readable. check with your travel agent/ airline to be sure

minotour

Mine is 10 years old, expires in August, it works jsut fine in the states. Machine readable means a barcode like design on the back (main) page. They swipe the bottom of that page through a machine, hence the name!

kasintahan

amazingemmet wrote:

It won't machine readable if its five years old. But i think you can travel with it and the next time you renew it it will be machine readable. check with your travel agent/ airline to be sure

YES IT WILL!

ALL IRISH PASSPORTS HAVE BEEN MACHINE READABLE SINCE THE 80's/early 90's (except for emergency ones)

Machine readable means it has those holes punched through the entire booklet (except cover) and the ICAO mess of black numbers below your personal details

like this

P<IRL0<MURPHY<<JOHN<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
L8757644<<<4IRL8768755677576576576<<<<<<<<<

amazingemmet

I think they (usa) mean the new type where they can use the machine to get the pic from it as opposed to having just the photo.

prospect

minotour wrote:

Mine is 10 years old, expires in August, it works jsut fine in the states. Machine readable means a barcode like design on the back (main) page. They swipe the bottom of that page through a machine, hence the name!

I thought you had to have at least 6 months remaining on your passport to go to the states!

seamus

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/06/26/story208793.html

Would there be many people around with hand-written passports?

Superman

seamus wrote:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/06/26/story208793.html

Would there be many people around with hand-written passports?

ho look at this a chance for me to out smart seamus, or at least know something he doesn't!!

Theres plenty of hand written passports, most people who are working for say the irish embassy away in a foreign country get hand written diplomatic passports!!, i know that for a fact! It even says who there affiliated to in the embassy if there family and what they do!

wheres me jumpa

hey guys im off to america in july too. my gf was telling me about some new digital passport required for entry to the u.s. now ive been searching but im guesssing this is what she was talking about?

Superman

No she needs th one with the magnetic strip!!!

DoraDelite

Superman wrote:

ho look at this a chance for me to out smart seamus, or at least know something he doesn't!!

Theres plenty of hand written passports, most people who are working for say the irish embassy away in a foreign country get hand written diplomatic passports!!, i know that for a fact! It even says who there affiliated to in the embassy if there family and what they do!

Also Irish citizens who renew their passports in foreign countries can have hand written ones too!

Superman

ooh interesting

Hagar

The US require machine readable passports because they have spent so long dumbing down their population to keep them under control that there is a good likelyhood that the airport official can't read as well as a toaster.

K!LL!@N

Also, be aware that you'll be have to submit to two finger scans ( left and right index fingers ) and a photo will also be taken.
The really important thing to remember is that you have to rescan on your way out of the country too.
But it's not nearly as obvious on the way out and i suspect many people have just walked past the machines as they just look like an ATM/information kiosk.
If they don't verify your leaving the country you might have some explaining to do the next time you visit.
Although they still have the green slip that they attach to your passport and they remove that at checkin, i think it's an older form of the same thing.

Just something to be aware of.

Killian

dearg_doom

seamus wrote:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/06/26/story208793.html

Would there be many people around with hand-written passports?

Not in the EU anymore, as has been said we've been using Machine-readable ones for ages now.

But that new US law is mainly aimed at poorer countries, the likes of countries from the Middle East, Africa and Asia would still use hand written passports, your photo is just glued on, not laminated!! Which means they're quite easy to fake.

It's yet more post-911 overreaction tbh.

dearg_doom

Hagar wrote:

The US require machine readable passports because they have spent so long dumbing down their population to keep them under control that there is a good likelyhood that the airport official can't read as well as a toaster.

LOL!!

Looks like we gots ourselves a reader!

b3t4

All the information that one might need.

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/passports_and_visas/machine_readable_irish_passports_and_travel_to_the_US.html?search=passport

A.