If you want to check if your chip is faulty then you can download a couple of apps from the Apple store : 'ReadID Me' or 'Biometric Passport Reader' they will read your info if your chip is working. There are plenty others about, but have found these both work- at least then you can rule out one of the potential problems if the gates don't work for you. Google store will probably have similar. I suspect most of the time user error and / or egate sensitivity is the problem. As mentioned above try the hairgrip trick as well- it works