scope:

The Seventh Edition of Doc 9303 represents a restructuring of the ICAO specifications for Machine Readable Travel Documents. Without incorporating substantial modifications to the specifications, in this new edition Doc 9303 has been reformatted into a set of specifications for Size 1 Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (TD1), Size 2 Machine Readable Official Travel Documents (TD2), and Size 3 Machine Readable Travel Documents (TD3), as well as visas. This set of specifications consists of various separate documents in which general (applicable to all MRTDs) as well as MRTD form factor specific specifications are grouped.

This Part provides mandatory and optional specifications for the precautions to be taken by travel document issuing authorities to ensure that their MRTDs, and their means of personalization and issuance to the rightful holders, are secure against fraudulent attack. Mandatory and optional specifications are also provided for the physical security to be provided at the premises where the MRTDs are produced, personalized and issued and for the vetting of personnel involved in these operations.

The worldwide increase in the number of people travelling and the expected continued growth, together with the growth in international crime, terrorism and illegal immigration have led to increasing concerns over the security of travel documents and calls for recommendations on what may be done to help improve their resistance to attack or misuse. Historically, Doc 9303 has not made recommendations on the specific security features to be incorporated in travel documents. Each issuing State has been free to incorporate such safeguards as it deemed appropriate to protect its nationally issued travel documents against counterfeiting, forgery and other forms of attack, as long as nothing was included which would adversely affect their OCR machine readability.

To meet the need of increased document security, ICAO's technical advisors decided it would be desirable to publish a set of "recommended minimum security standards" as a guideline for all States issuing machine readable travel documents. Thus,

• Appendix A to this Part describes security measures to be taken within the structure of the MRTD and of the premises in which it is produced;

• Appendix B describes optional means of achieving machine-assisted document verification;

• Appendix C describes the security measures to be taken to ensure the security of the personalization operations and of the documents in transit.