MRZ- Machine readable zone.

The ICAO document 9303 describes specifications common to all Machine Readable Travel Documents.

MRZ fonts: OCR-B

  1. •Machine readable passports (MRP) : 2 lines of 44 characters
  2. •Machine readable visas (MRV): 2 lines 44 characters, 2 lines 36 characters
  3. •Travel documents(ID Card/ driver’s license): 2 lines of 36 characters, 3 lines of 30 characters

 

Official travel documents(ID cards)

MRZ-ID-CARD

Smaller documents such as identity and passport cards are usually in the TD1 size, which is 85.6 * 54.0 mm (3.37 * 2.13 in), the same size as credit cards. The data of the machine-readable zone in a TD1 size card consists of three rows of 30 characters each. The only characters used are A–Z, 0–9 and the filler character <.

Some official travel documents are in the larger TD2 size, 105.0 * 74.0 (4.13 * 2.91 in). They have a layout of the MRZ with two rows of 36 characters each, similar to the TD3 format, but with 31 characters for the name, 7 for the personal number and one less check digit. Yet some official travel documents are in the booklet format with a TD3 identity page.

The format of the first row for TD1 (credit card size) documents is:

Positions Length Chars Meaning
1 1 alpha I, A or C
2 1 alpha+< Type, This is at the discretion of the issuing state or authority, but 1–2 should be IP for passport cards, AC for Crew Member Certificates and V is not allowed as 2nd character. ID or I< are typically used for nationally issued ID cards
3–5 3 alpha+< Issuing country or organization (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code with modifications)
6–14 9 alpha+num+< Document number
15 1 num+< Check digit over digits 6–14
16–30 15 alpha+num+< Optional

Machine readable passport (MRP)

mrz-mrp_image

Passport booklets have an identity page containing the identity data. This page shall be in the TD3 size which means 125 × 88 mm (4.92 × 3.46 in).

The data of the machine-readable zone consists of two rows of 44 characters each. The only characters used are A–Z, 0–9 and the filler character <.

The format of the first row is:

Positions Length Characters Meaning
1 1 alpha P, indicating a passport
2 1 alpha+< Type (for countries that distinguish between different types of passports)
3–5 3 alpha+< Issuing country or organization (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code with modifications)
6–44 39 alpha+< Surname, followed by two filler characters, followed by given names. Given names are separated by single filler characters

Machine-readable visas

MRV

The ICAO Document 9303 part 7 describes machine-readable visas. They come in two different formats:

  • MRV-A – 80 mm × 120 mm (3.15 in × 4.72 in)
  • MRV-B – 74 mm × 105 mm (2.91 in × 4.13 in)

The format of the first row of the machine-readable zone is:

Positions Length Chars Meaning
1 1 alpha “V”
2 1 alpha+< Type, this is at the discretion of the issuing state or authority
3–5 3 alpha+< Issuing country or organization (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code with modifications)
6–44 39 alpha+< Name in MRV-A
6–36 31 alpha+< Name in MRV-B

The format of the second row is:

Positions Length Chars Meaning
1-9 9 alpha+num+< Passport or Visa number
10 1 num Check digit
11–13 3 alpha+< Nationality
14–19 6 num Date of birth
20 1 num Check digit
21 1 alpha+< Sex
22-27 6 num Valid until
28 1 num Check digit
29–44 16 alpha+num+< Optional data in MRV-A
29–36 8 alpha+num+< Optional data in MRV-B
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