Originally Posted by etch5895
If you 'broke' or otherwise incapacitated the tag, though, wouldn't it invalidate the passport?
"I'm sorry, sir, we can't verify the ID tag in your passport...you can't leave / return to the country until you get it repaired."
Having just had to apply for one of these passports yesterday (German), I asked this question at the embassy in Bern (where German citizens with Swiss residence have to get theirs). I asked them exactly this question, since my current passport is slightly... mangled, let's say.
They said that if the chip is damaged, the passport reverts to being treated as a non-biometric passport, which means it is scanned and checked the old way. Apparently, there is no problem with this so far, especially since there are still so many passports around which are non-biometric. For the life of the passport (5 years for me b/c I'm under 26, but also for the usual 10 years), it will not matter if the chip ceases to work, simply because this is still accepted as a trial phase.
Thankfully, I've gotten in on the lesser of two evils - my passport will only contain my data and my picture. Starting 2007, German passports will also additionally also have your left and right indexfinger-prints saved on the chip. Is this a foreshadowing of more fingerprint checks to come online in other countries in the future?
