Passport Number

Source of Definition: DOS; USCIS; ICAO 9309-4

Source of Data: DOS; USCIS

An alpha-numeric identifier as given by the issuing jurisdiction to uniquely identify the document from all other machine readable travel documents issued by the jurisdiction.

Usage Note: In many countries (including the U.S.), the number on a passport identifies a document not a person, so when a passport is renewed a new number will be issued.

Most countries conform with the ICAO 9309 standard for travel documents, which specifies the passport number is 9 characters long.

Logical Format (Type/Max Length): AN/12

BFDPPN

passportNumber type: string

U.S. Passport Number Format

Every United States passport has a "Passport Number" which identifies the passport document. Over time a person may have been issued a number of passports, with different numbers on each. Note, the number on an Emergency (replacement for a stolen) passport may be a recycled number which may be harder to verify.

U.S. Passport Number are composed of letters and numbers (and no other special characters). The formats include:

• For passports issued in 2021 and later:
  • "A" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - for most new Passport Books (blue cover), including passports for No-fee military dependents. Other letters of the alphabet will be used once all book numbers beginning with "A" have been exhausted (although this is not expected to happen for many years).
  • "C" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - this is used on current Passport Cards
  • "X" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - for new Diplomatic Passport Books (black cover).
  • "Y" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - for new Official Passport Books (maroon cover).
  • "Z" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - for new Military Service Passport Books (gray cover).
  • Nine numeric digits - for certain Passport Books (blue cover), such as emergency passports and in regular passports issued in early 2021.
• For current passports issued in 2021 and earlier:
  • Nine numeric digits - the common format for Passport Books
  • "C" (in upper case), followed by eight numeric characters - this is used on current Passport Cards
• For expired passports: Six, seven and eight characters, have been used in the past. These are old formats and are no longer used on current passports.

Care must be taken with the letters in a passport number, because some systems are case sensitive.