EU passport issues in US
 

(Not sure if this is the proper place to post, but I'm sure I don't know a better place to ask)

My partner and myself got new (EU) passports last year, issued in Belgium (Belgian nationality, no other nationalities or anything that could flag us). We used them for travel BRU > IAD, DCA > BOS, BOS > FRA and FRA > BRU.

• BRU and FRA: no problems. e-Gates worked without any glitch for both of us.
• IAD: only arrived there, passport was checked by CBP in-person, nothing mentioned
• DCA and BOS (at TSA check-point): computer system would not accept either of our passports. Supervisor needed to be called, and after lengthy wait and a glance at our passport, the system was overridden and we were told to move on.
  • None of the airlines (UA, JBU, LH) had any issues with our passports

At BOS I dared to go back and ask if something was wrong with our passports. The few words we got out of the agent was "it's something with the UV"...

I'm posting here to see if anyone had similar experience, or advice on what could be happening here?
I'm most concerned that - on a future occasion - this could lead to excessive delays that would ultimately result in a missed flight. Since the EU gates seem to be perfectly happy with our passports, I'm expecting to get turned away by our city hall if I would claim the passports are defective.

It seems you are probably talking about having a problem at the TSA document check just before security screening - is that correct? Or are you talking about at checkin with the airline, in which case, did the two problems happen with the same airline or different airlines? What country issued the passports?

It seems unlikely to me that the passports themselves are "defective" and need to be replaced. Rather, it seems more likely that it was a communication issue with the database the passports were checked against.

You are correct: the problem was only at TSA.
None of the airlines (UA, JBU, LH) had issues, nor did CBP.
Passports were newly issued in 2024, in Belgium.
(I'll try to update my opening post to include this info)

I now stumbled on a Reddit post (no rights to post links yet on the forum) that has quite some similarities to our experience:

• TSA issue
• Supervisor eventually letting you through
• Mention of a "UV issue"
• A commenter stating it's a problem with the cat machines and recent passports

Reading further into cat machines, it seems there have been more reported issues with new driver's licenses in the US etc. Unfortunately, no clear answer whether the issues lie with the cat-machine or if it's an issue with manufacturing standards/acceptance criteria of newer passports.

To add to my doubts: I found out yesterday that returning ESTA passengers now qualify for Mobile Passport Control, which I value considering it is the only method available to me to expedite entry into the US. If I get my passport replaced, I lose that perk without guarantees that it would actually change anything if the issue is on the machine side (+ the cost of replacing a 1-year old passport, re-applying for a new ESTA).

Sounds to me like the automated document verification (i.e. of security features) software used by TSA hasn't been updated to analyze the most recent series of Belgian passports (issuance started in February of 2023). Hence, the mention of "UV", I suppose.

I should have paid more attention when you mentioned "UV issue." It is not a problem with your passports. It is a problem with TSO training. Or actually not, read on. :)

There are a few ways a document might pass CAT verification just fine but still be fraudulent. UV light is used to reveal certain security features of the document which help authenticate the document separate from the automated authentication. Under international agreement (ICAO 9303), MRTDs must be produced with standard security features. But countries may also include non-standard features and I expect the Kingdom has incorporated some non-standard OVI and/or OVD features in their newer passports. In your case, the TSO saw unexpected security features under the UV light and additional scrutiny was required. So, this was a training moment. :)

To be fair, with more 200+ countries issuing a variety of travel documents, each featuring varying security features, it is easy understand how TSOs might not be familiar with all of the features on a document, especially if it was a recently issued document with updated or new security features.

You need to do nothing. In time, the document checkers will catch up to the documents in use.

Mind you, the data page's UV security feature shows Tintin on a spacewalk. I can see why that led to some confusion :D

Council of the European Union - PRADO - BEL-AO-11001 - <Integrated biodata card - recto (identity)> - UV feature (europa.eu)

That certainly sounds re-assuring and plausible! Thanks for enlightening me. I've since also found an additional post on Flyertalk of a Belgian citizen with the same experience, which further reassures me that the problem isn't on our side.

Would the computer-system automatically pick up these non-standard UV features, and deny passage?
At DCA we just inserted our passport into a slot at the front of the counter, and a few moments later a red sign showed on the screen. Until that point, it didn't include any involvement of the TSO.
The TSO also asked us to try a 2nd time, which leads me to believe it was the computer system that didn't like our passports and not an intervention of the TSO (if the TSO saw the extra UV features on the first try, there wouldn't be a point in trying again).
I believe the experience in BOS was roughly the same: automated system does not accept the passport, and only then did we hand our passports to an officer for further examination.

Yes, deployment of automated document inspection technology with automated UV/infrared feature authentication is sort of the norm globally these days when using full-page document readers. (That is at immigration checkpoints, but I'd assume TSA uses a very similar technology as they also deploy full-page readers).


See also:
​​​​​​​Current machine authentication of security documents - Keesing Platform (keesingtechnologies.com)