German Electronic Passports Introduction of Alphanumeric Serial Numbers on 1 November 2007 On 1 November 2007, Germany began to issue passports which incorporate a chip storing two digitized fingerprints alongside the facial image. On the same date Germany replaced the numeric serial numbers used for German electronic passports by an alphanumeric system. From now on, the serial numbers used in German passports are composed of the digits from 0-9 and letters of the Latin alphabet. In total, 27 characters will be used (digits and letters). So as to avoid meaningful words and to ensure OCR readability, the vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) and certain letters (B, D, Q, and S) will not be used. The serial numbers issued as from 1 November 2007 are thus C 8 4 M 5 8 W T 6 composed of the following characters: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, C, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, T, V, W, X, Y, Z. Picture 1: Example of an alphanumeric serial number Serial numbers invariably start with a letter, in order to distinguish them from the numbers used to date and to distinguish between various types of documents. - The letters “C” to “K” will be used for passports and for official and diplomatic passports. - German travel documents for foreigners, stateless persons and refugees will also be issued with alphanumeric serial numbers as from 1 November 2007. This serial number starts with a “Z”. Picture 2: Alphanumeric serial number in the passport card Temporary passports and children’s passports are exempted from this rule. German ID cards will continue to be issued with a numeric serial number (without letters). Editorial office and contact Bundesministerium des Innern, Referat IT 4 (Federal Ministry of the Interior, Division IT 4) Biometrie, Pass- und Ausweiswesen, Meldewesen (Biometrics, Travel and ID Documents, Registration) Alt-Moabit 101 D, 10559 Berlin, Germany E-mail: [email protected] as per: 1 November 2007