Identity documents

Identity documents are carriers of data and they provide information about the owner, as well as about the document itself.

An electronic travel document is a passport or identity card that contains an (invisible) chip. This chip is embedded in the identity card and in the passport’s holder’s page, which is the page that displays personal data and a photo. The chip contains data groups with information such as a photo and corresponding personal data.

PASSPORT

The passport is a travel document defined by ICAO 9303 as type TD-3 (MRP, Machine Readable Passport). It contains an MRZ and an RFID chip for digital processing.

ID CARD

The ID card is a travel document defined by ICAO 9303 as type TD-1 (eMRTD, Machine Readable Travel Document). It contains an MRZ and RFID chip for digital processing.

Other documents can also be identity documents. However, these are not standardized at the international level and are set up by local authorities at their discretion. Due to the lack of standardization, processing these documents can sometimes be less straightforward.

DRIVING LICENSE

Originally, due to print quality and varying layout, the driver’s license was not necessarily suitable for digital processing. As of November 2014, this has changed with the addition of a (single-line) MRZ and an RFID chip.

OTHER DOCUMENTS

For non-Dutch driver’s licenses or identity documents that are not internationally standardized, it must be determined on a case-by-case basis whether they can be processed digitally.