Hi there,

So i got one of thes new fancy ~Biometric passport. I have been traveling to the USA several times and to the uk too (its a french one). I am about to travel to the usa again in march , so far so good...

Except that yesterday when i went back to the uk where i work the immigration officer said my chip was no longer readable and that in a country like the usa i could have issues gettign in ...

Im quite upset and stress with the whole situation, i mean thos things can stop working overnight so how can you know it has happened to yours until you get to the border ???

Is a non properly working chip enough to deny you acces to the usa ???( it has to work at times because in france it has worked most of the time and some of the times it has not the immigration ppl were moaning and typing the visa in manually)

let me know what you think and/or if you have ever heard somehting like that before ??? What in this chip anyways ?

sebastien

I'd like to help but they keep us in the dark. We're only citizens.

sebdakid, welcome to FlyerTalk!

I don't have an answer for you either but perhaps someone will be able to help.

Best of luck on your trip to the US next month.

It isn't biometric-- it is a "smart chip".

And, no, you will not have trouble entering the US for that reason.

And, welcome to FT!

You should be happy, I had to beat my new US passport with a hammer a couple of times to disable my RFID chip. Consider it a security enhancement - the chip is supposedly there for security reasons but it actually makes your passport and you less secure, so you're better off with it dead.

In the US, when we are issued a passport with a RFID tag, the passport comes with a flier stating that even if the chip is unreadable, the passport's validity is not affected. I would imagine this applies to non-US passports, provided the machine-readable portion of the identity page is still readable. The chip is not "the passport" it is a part of the actual document that makes the document easier to process. What matters is the information on your passport, and that's not affected by the chip or lack thereof.

I find it highly unlikely that a new RFID chip euqipped passport shall be unreadable. Did anyone confirm that besides this one officer

Is the hammer trick more effective than 15 seconds in the microwave?

Yes, because a microwave may leave a burn mark and tampering with your passport is a crime -- the burn mark being evidence thereof. A dead drop hammer is unlikely to leave a suspicious mark.

I decided to go with matching RFID blocking wallet and passport cover.

Anyone know how to program the RFID to emit....KIP HAWLEY IS AN IDIOT..? God, I would feel safe then...

Exactly. This is actually a rule of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The information on the chip is just an additional feature.

I think since now more and more people get passports with RFID-Chips we will see more and more broken ones over the next years. It won't probably be long until a fellow Flyertalker will share its experience of being detained at the US border because the chip didn't work.

The chip consists of 16 Datagroups where Datagroup 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the most important. Datagroup 1 has the following information stored:
Document Type
Issuing State or Organization
Name (of Holder)
Document Number
Check Digit
Nationality
Date of Birth
Check Digit
Sex
Date of Expiry or Valid Until Date
Check Digit
Optional Data Field
Check Digit
Composite Check Digit

Datagroup 2 (Global interchange feature):
Encoded Face

Datagroup 3 (additional feature):
Encoded Fingerprints

Datagroup 4 (additional feature):
Encoded Eyes

Datagroup 5 to 16 has some additional information which are not that important.

If I remember correctly for the UK passport there was a story about a year ago that the manufacturer of the chip only offered a 2 year warranty and that the devices didnt have enough space to hold the biometric information that the government announced they were going to hold (retinal scans, fingerprints etc.)

I like to think there is a (are ?) civil servant(s) somewhere doing their level best to thwart the whole security creep project - but then I'm an optomist.

So thanks for the answer ...

I kept looking for one myself since i fund it quite strange that shi chip might not be working since i did not beat it with a hammer or put in a microwave and i obviously want it to work.
The french consultate said i would be sent back to france or detained for several hours ( a bit excessive though)

I called the french minister department that delivered it and they said that they had never had the case before so they were surprise and at a loss regarding what i had to do ... However i did learn that this chip has only the data that you seen in your passport on it and that no additional data can be added onto it , at least for the french passport...


So i called the CBP phone number... THe lady i had on the phone ws again at a loss for word but she put me on hold and asked someone who told her that i could be delayed and asked more questions untild my idendity could be verified and try to get it fixed...

The bottom line in all this is that hose passports are quite new and that in france the french police seemed to hint that sometime sit was theri machines that were acting up and not th epassport while that biritish official was quite formal that his machine was working well.

In france or UK they actually scan the passport as you would with a computer and a green light or red shows up to let you know if scanner goes through and then ur picture from the chip is supposed to show up on the screen and match the one on the passport ... I dont really know what they do or see in the usa...

So i dont know i think i am gonna get a new one although it is abit upsettign i wish someone had had a rather similar experience because my trip is coming soon and i am stressing out !