Swipe feature of passport doesn’t work

Upvote:1

Do you mean the NFC chip on the passport? Or do you mean the machine readable text on the biographical info page? The latter optical machine readable text is often “swiped” at passport stations with older non-NFC machines.

If you mean the NFC chip then you can pretty much stuck and need to get a new passport.

If you mean the optical machine readable text at the bottom of the biographical page (photo page) then you might want to see if there’s some dirt or grime that is making some letters or characters illegible. If there is, you could try carefully cleaning it.

You could get a new passport but most passport stations are moving to NFC (harder to forge). The only issue is if you ever get denied entry which is a significant risk.

Upvote:2

this happened to me (Irish passport), which resulted in additional scrutiny (Gatwick) and a cheery "did you know that..." (Calais).

The entry requirements for most (if not all countries) do not require the biometric chip to be functioning, but it can result in having to stand in a lengthier queue, and may result in additional scrutiny (i.e. a biometric chip is likely hard to fake, so they may perform additional checks if the chip doesn't work).

If the chip never worked, it may be faulty. Contact your issuing office they may offer a free replacement (perhaps the batch was faulty), however this is unlikely.

The most likely reason for the chip not working is some sort of trauma (heat/water/general abuse - bending in a back pocket, for example). If this is the case, I expect you will have to either live with it, or pay for a replacement passport. HM Passport Office in the UK simply re-direct you to the "replace my passport" section for a failed biometric chip. Some issuing offices, as a gesture of goodwill, add the unexpired portion of a faulty/lost/damaged passport onto a new passport (i.e. replacing a damaged passport with 1 year unexpired means your new 10-year passport has 11 years on it, but again - this will depend on the custom of the issuing office, and probably the mood of the person issuing your new book).

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