MRZ Formats Explained: TD1, TD2, and TD3

TD3: passports

Passport data pages use TD3: two lines of 44 characters. Line 1 holds the document type, issuing state, and name; line 2 holds the passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex, expiry date, optional data, and check digits.

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

• TD1: ID cards: Credit-card-sized ID cards use TD1: three lines of 30 characters, usually on the back of the card. Line 1 carries the document number, line 2 the dates and nationality, and line 3 the name.
• TD2: other documents: TD2 uses two lines of 36 characters and appears on some older ID cards and travel documents. Machine readable visas use their own MRV-A and MRV-B layouts.
• Filler and names: The < character fills unused positions and separates name parts: the surname is followed by <<, and given names are separated by single <. Names are transliterated to A–Z.

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.

{
  "TD3: passports": "Passport data pages use TD3: two lines of 44 characters.",
  "TD1: ID cards": "Credit-card-sized ID cards use TD1: three lines of 30 characters, usually on the back of the card.",
  "TD2: other documents": "TD2 uses two lines of 36 characters and appears on some older ID cards and travel documents.",
  "Filler and names": "The < character fills unused positions and separates name parts: the surname is followed by <<, and given names are separated by single <."
}