Steve M

I think you're mis-reading the FAQ. The section you quote is talking about passport cards, not passport books. Passport cards have only the card number on the RFID chip, and everything else is looked up online based on that number. Passport books, on the other hand, have all the information on the data page, including the photo, on the RFID chip. It says as much later on in the FAQ (although it just uses the term "electronic passport" and not RFID). This is what allows them to be used stand-alone, without a connection to the issuing country's immigration computers.