Many people think their passport photo is nothing short of a cruel and unusual joke, but it is actually a security feature. While these photos tend to be unflattering, they do serve the purpose of letting passport agents know that you are who you claim to be. It is one of the simpler elements of the U.S. passport, but it may be the most important. It is the only way for agents to properly identify you. To avoid travel delays, you should have an updated passport with a current photo. A picture that no longer looks like you can cause unnecessary delays as you pass through customs.
Sophisticated artwork is applied during the printing of your U.S. passport, making forgery difficult. Guilloche techniques, which are very intricate designs that are difficult to reproduce, are used on every page of your passport, and are used to produce the "USA" logo above your picture.
Take one look through the pages of your passport, and you'll notice that each page is different. Every page has a different design inspired by the country's history, a different guilloche pattern and a different inspirational quote. The varied elements are another security feature that makes your passport difficult to reproduce.
Each U.S. passport features holographic images. If you hold the first page of your passport at a certain angle, you will notice images and text that were not obvious before. These images cannot be reproduced by a standard printer, therefore making the passport difficult to forge.
One of the safety features of your passport cannot be seen with the naked eye. These images and text must be viewed under special ultraviolet or fluorescent lighting.
Every passport issued since August 2007 is considered an e-passport, which means it includes a small data chip that contains the holder's name, birth date and other identifying information. At designated international check-points, the data is read through biometric facial recognition identification methods. Each chip has a digital signature to protect the sensitive information it stores.
