# Electronic passports coverage

- 172 countries have them (December 2023) [Source](https://www.inverid.com/blog/countries-epassports)
- In the EU, the chip has been mandatory since 2004. [Source](https://www.inverid.com/blog/countries-epassports)
- All EU and northern american countries have them and publish the certificates [Source: table of electronic passport coverage by country (December 2023)](https://www.readid.com/hubfs/Documents/Whitepapers%20and%20Reports/ReadID%20Whitepaper%20%7C%20ReadID%20documents%20summary.pdf)
- French, German, Italian, Schengen, Swiss and Spanish CSCA master lists are published by each of these respective countries. [Source](https://www.inverid.com/blog/authenticity-electronic-passports)
- Almost all EU identity cards and residence permit have NFC [Source](https://www.inverid.com/blog/European-Identity-cards), [Source](https://www.inverid.com/blog/residence-permits-europe-with-nfc-chip)
- Support for chip auth and active auth [here](https://www.inverid.com/blog/cloning-detection-identity-documents)
- Hard to get access to chip data samples through the ICAO or [PRADO](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/prado/en/search-by-document-country.html)
- Only governments, reader manufacturer and reference producers can get specimen passports. [Source slide 14](https://www.icao.int/Meetings/TRIP-Antigua-2017/Documents/Day%202-Session%203%20Tony%20DEAN.pdf)
- [Other relevant specs](https://www.icao.int/publications/documents/9303_p11_cons_en.pdf)

In 2021, ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization, which standardises passports) released an updated standard, introducing LDS2 (Logical Data Structure 2). This is a new section of the passport chip that allows the storage of further data, including travel history, visa records, and additional biometric data. LDS2 completely changes what a passport is. Current passports are read-only, but with LDS2, they become writable. Passport stamps and visas become digital. Passports go from being an identification document to a detailed record of your movements. [Source](https://whenderson.dev/blog/biometric-passports/)

[Ari Juels paper on passports](https://eprint.iacr.org/2005/095.pdf)

It's been a while we've had a few questions on passports that were hard to answer:
- Which countries use which signing algorithms exactly
- How to get passport data at scale
- [Do countries store the private keys and embed them on chips or are they generated on chip](https://hackmd.io/@TCEn_IDhTDWLjwyItiiBcQ/rJO-q0xi6)

[2017 findings on E-Passport validation: A practical
experience](https://www.icao.int/Meetings/TRIP-HongKong-2017/Documents/TRIP2017.HongKong.Rajesh(edited).pdf)
- In 2017, 34% of all passports presented at border are e-passports
- 1 in 3 docs can't be verified for authenticity
- Lists a few defects from some countries

[2016 Germany Advanced Security Mechanisms for Machine
Readable Travel Documents and eIDAS Token](https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/BSI/Publications/TechGuidelines/TR03110/BSI_TR-03110_Part-3-V2_2.pdf;jsessionid=B76F8C9A067728E2AF73B529751D395E.2_cid294?__blob=publicationFile&v=1)

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/132743224.pdf

### Coverage by country
- France: ~50%
- Germany: ~41%
- UK: ~76%
- US: ~50%
- Canada: ~70%
- China: ~10%?
- India: ~7%
- Japan: ~17%

### Signature algorithms
- Signature algorithms in the specs [page 14-17](https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/9303_p12_cons_en.pdf)
- [Non-exhaustive list of signature algorithms used here](https://github.com/zk-passport/modulus-extractooor/blob/main/signature_algorithms.json)