Yes, the U.S. uses electronic passports and you might already have one
An electronic or e-passport is the standard book passport that has a microchip embedded in the back cover. It is not a digital passport, such as a mobile passport app.
The U.S. Department of State says it has exclusively issued electronic passports since 2007.
The screenshots Marylyn sent VERIFY are from a TikTok account of a former Jamaica News Network reporter named Abi-Gaye Smythe. In the video, she reports that electronic passports will become available to Jamaicans on March 31.
The Passport, Immigration & Citizenship Agency (PICA), a Jamaican government agency referenced in the TikTok video, wrote on March 28 that the country would start issuing its new e-passports on March 31.
More than 150 countries already use electronic passports. All e-passports across the globe are identified with the same symbol on the front cover, which looks like a circle inside a rectangle split in half.
The chip in an American passport stores a unique identification number, the personal information displayed on the passport’s photo page, a digital version of the photograph to be used by facial recognition technology at ports-of-entry and a digital signature meant to protect the data from alteration.
“If the chip fails, the passport remains a valid travel document until its expiration date,” the State Department says. “You will continue to be processed by the port-of-entry officer as if you had a passport without a chip.”
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