ICAO Doc 9303: A Developer’s Guide to Passport Data

What 9303 covers

ICAO Doc 9303 defines machine readable travel documents: passport data page layout, MRZ formats, check digits, country codes, and the electronic chip used in e-passports.

Extracting It Automatically

When you read this data from photos, the Passport OCR API returns it as structured JSON, and you can apply the rules on this page as validation. Try it with the free scanner.

Where This Fits

• Visual inspection zone: The printed fields above the MRZ follow a standard order but allow national variation in labels, languages, and optional fields such as place of birth or personal numbers.
• Country codes: Issuing state and nationality use three-letter codes based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, with ICAO-specific codes for some organizations and special cases.
• What OCR can and cannot do: OCR reads the printed data page. Chip reading needs NFC hardware and access keys and is outside an image-based API.

Extract It with the API

Read the document from a photo and validate the returned fields.

Prerequisite: Python 3.9+, `pip install requests`, and a STRUCTOCR_API_KEY

import base64
import os
import requests

with open("passport.jpg", "rb") as image_file:
    image = base64.b64encode(image_file.read()).decode("ascii")

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.structocr.com/v1/passport",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["STRUCTOCR_API_KEY"]},
    json={"img": image},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()["data"]
print("passport_number:", data.get("passport_number"))
print("surname:", data.get("surname"))
print("given_names:", data.get("given_names"))
print("date_of_expiry:", data.get("date_of_expiry"))

Reference Summary

Key facts from this page in structured form, for quick lookup.

{
  "What 9303 covers": "ICAO Doc 9303 defines machine readable travel documents: passport data page layout, MRZ formats, check digits, country codes, and the electronic chip used in e-passports..",
  "Visual inspection zone": "The printed fields above the MRZ follow a standard order but allow national variation in labels, languages, and optional fields such as place of birth or personal numbers..",
  "Country codes": "Issuing state and nationality use three-letter codes based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, with ICAO-specific codes for some organizations and special cases..",
  "What OCR can and cannot do": "OCR reads the printed data page."
}