The first U.S. passports issued to a few number of people led by Benjamin Franklin on an important mission to France were single sheets of one-sided paper with a validity of 3 to 6 months. And obviously those passports were not powerful enough to protect the holder\u2019s from being identity theft. Any forger could take advantage of the weak spots on those papers.<\/p>\n
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But the time has been changed a lot – with the advancement in technology, counterfeiting passports is now next to impossible. The days of forged passports are gone. Moreover, the idea of passing through the immigration checkpoint without having travel documents come under scrutiny is simply absurd. Nevertheless, government takes not risk and by all means stays ahead of the game to protect the identity of the passport-holders through Holograms, RFID, Font and Hidden Ink.<\/p>\n
Holograms<\/strong> \u2013 Look at your passport identification page, you might notice a thin film covering your photo and personal data \u2013 this is a transparent hologram overlay and a reliable way to prevent counterfeiting. Though it\u2019s been effectual since being standard on passports for last few decades, the complexities make is difficult to train the immigration officers to identify a legitimate document and a forgery.<\/p>\n RFID<\/strong> \u2013 Radio Frequency Identification or RFID is the clearest feature of American passports. The back cover of the passport is filled with sensitive electronics that shouldn\u2019t be exposed to extreme temperature or water. Since August 2007, the Department of State started issuing passports with RFID chips. You can enter any country with an immigration checkpoint without machines that can\u2019t read the chips, but passports with the chips would have access to your digital photo, personal information and passport to ensure legitimacy.<\/p>\n