e-Passport in India: Can the RFID chip protect your identity?

The e-Passport in India introduces a secure RFID chip and biometric verification to make international travel faster, safer, and compliant with global standards. The e-Passport in India is a major upgrade that adds biometric security and faster immigration, bringing Indian travellers in line with global passport standards. As a biometric passport, India’s e-Passport stores fingerprints and facial data in encrypted form, aligning with ICAO global norms. The new e-Passport in India is an updated version of the old passport which inserts a secure electronic chip into the booklet, which makes international traveling secure and examination of immigration quicker. It has made India match the international standards of biometric passports that are already being practiced in other countries such as the US, EU countries, Japan and Australia.

What is an e-Passport and how does it work in India?

The Indian e-Passport looks similar to a regular passport but includes an embedded RFID chip storing encrypted biometric data. The appearance of an e-Passport is similar to that of a normal Indian passport except the presence of a small RFID (radio-frequency) chip and an antenna embedded on the back cover. This chip holds your personal information (name, date of birth, passport number) and even your biometrics data such as your photograph, fingerprints and in some cases your iris information in encrypted format.

The chip is constructed based on the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards, and this means that the chip can be read with a high degree of reliability at e-gates when the passenger is passing through the immigration gates of different countries in the globe. This is due to the fact that the data is digitally signed and encrypted, therefore, it is highly hard to duplicate, tamper with or forge, significantly curbing identity theft and passport fraud.

Is e-Passport safe?

Advanced e-Passport security features such as BAC, PA, AA, and PKI encryption protect Indian travellers from identity theft and passport cloning. The RFID chip passport India uses is embedded inside the booklet and can only be read at close range by authorised immigration systems. The RFID chip of the e-Passport contains the encrypted personal details, scans of the face, fingerprints, and iris data with the help of digital signatures with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which provides the seal in case of any tampering. Such protocols as Basic Access Control (BAC) force the physical passport page to unlock the chip and makes your chip unwelcoming to the remote-skimming unauthorized readers--the data cannot be read in your pocket without the MRZ (machine-readable zone) code.

Passive Authentication (PA) is used to ensure that the chip data is the same as the printed page by hashing, and Active Authentication (AA) is used to demonstrate the uniqueness of the chip by using challenge-response in order to block simple cloning. In reality, this has resulted in close to zero reported cloning successes in the ICAO-compliant systems because when the data is manipulated, the signatures are destroyed in the official scans.

In case a passport is lost or stolen, the chip can be remotely locked by the police through police FIR and made useless in the authentication process globally. This will deal directly with identity theft because it is impossible to impersonate a holder without their matching biometrics as it is the case with photocopied paper passports.

RFID chips are theoretically vulnerable to eavesdropping on legitimate scans or sophisticated relay but the implementation in India employs superior upgrades on PACE (Password Authenticated Connection Establishment) over the primitive BAC to enhance security. Lab cloning can still take place where the inspection systems do not involve optional checkouts, but in current times, e-gates use full AA/PA, and the PKI infrastructure in India is capable of detecting anomalies.

To guard against opportunistic skimmers, users are advised to cover passports with RFID-blocking wallets to provide an added level of protection, although actual attacks are uncommon since the read range (less than 10cm) is quite limited and the encrypted data is decrypted. On the whole, e- Passports transfer risks of the simple forgery to complex attacks on the state, and daily scam and theft is hardly a viable practice.

e-Passport in India: Features and benefits

The e-Passports employ security measures like Basic access control (BAC), Passive authentication (PA) and Extended Access Control (EAC) to safeguard the data stored. This implies that border control systems will be able to check the content of the chip and the physical passport, thus making it more difficult to be detected using fake or forged documents.

The greatest advantage to the travellers is the speed at which the immigration counters process them and the automated e-gates since the officers are able to scan the chip and biometrics within a few seconds rather than taking time to check all the necessary details. This will eventually ease international travel, having fewer queues, and also will ensure a higher-level security in airports.

Who can apply for an e-Passport?

The Passport Seva e-Passport rollout under Passport Seva Programme 2.0 covers all PSKs and POPSKs across India. Any Indian citizen, who is entitled to a regular passport, is allowed to apply to be given an e-Passport, be it a new passport or a replacement. Passport Seva Programme 2.0 has seen the implementation of e- Passport by the Ministry of External Affairs in all the 37 Passport offices with 93 PSKs and approximately 450 POPSKs in India.

To begin with, it was only available in a few centres and pilot locations and therefore it is always good to ensure that one by the time of booking, the nearest Passport Seva Kendra or the Post office Passport Seva Kendra is issuing chip-based passports. The government is in the process of migrating all new booklets issued to date to the e-Passport form (nationwide migration).

How to apply for e-Passport in India: Step-by-step process

Application procedures in e-Passport are nearly similar to what occurs during a normal passport:

• Create or sign in to the official Passport Seva portal (passportindia.gov.in).
• Select the option of Fresh Passport / re-issue, and complete the online form with correct details.
• Make an internet payment of the required passport fee and make an appointment at the desired PSK/POPSK.
• Report at the centre during the appointment date with original papers; this is where your photo and fingerprints will be taken to be used in biometrics.
• Once the e-Passport booklet is verified and processed by the police, a printing job is made and the finished chip embedded booklet is sent to your address of registration.

e-Passport fees in India and Tatkal charges

Tatkal e-Passport charges in India are higher due to expedited processing and priority verification. To process normal (regular) e-Passports, e-Passport fees are similar to regular passports: Rs1,500 in a 36-page booklet and Rs2,000 in a 60-page booklet applicant fees of most adults. When you choose Tatkal or rush services, then there is an added cost, usually bringing the total Tatkal cost of adults to about Rs3,500 36 pages and Rs4,000 60 pages.

These fees may slightly change with time or service type (fresh, re-issue or amendments in personal details) and therefore, applicants must always ensure that they are paying the most recent set of fees in the Passport Seva portal or official MEA notices. The e-Passport marks a major Indian passport upgrade, bringing faster immigration and stronger security for global travel.