Machine-readable entry in the Russian passport decryption. Online publication about high technologies

2013-01-16 200 0

Since July 1, 2011, Russia has been issuing passports for citizens of the Russian Federation of a new type - with a machine-readable record (MCR).

In our district last year alone, more than 4,500 of these were issued. But there are still those who are suspicious of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Someone is mystifying the record, someone is sure that some secret information about the owner of the passport is hidden there (I wonder who would search for it and why...). In general, the magic of numbers is in action. Therefore, today we are explaining what a machine-readable record “hides”, or more precisely, what data it reveals about the passport holder.

Reading MChZ
The actual machine-readable entry is two fixed-length lines on the third page of the passport under the photograph. Look at the photo.

The top line, the first letters “PN”, is an indication that the passport is domestic (two-letter Passport National code).

After them, capital “RUS” is the three-letter code of the Russian Federation, which is how the country that issued the passport is indicated.

From 6 to 44 positions for characters - the first name, last name, and patronymic of the passport owner are entered, separated by special characters “<». Имя и отчество, а также составные части двойных или сложных фамилий разделяются одним знаком-заполнителем. Если ФИО с учётом знаков-разделителей содержат менее 39 символов, то свободные позиции после последней буквы отчества будут заняты знаками-заполнителями. ФИО обозначаются латинскими буквами.

Bottom line, positions 1 to 9 - here the series (the first three digits) and the passport number are indicated, as a single number without spaces or separators (for example, a passport of series 4601 No. 123456 will be written in the Ministry of Chronology as follows: 460123456).

10th position - check digit. It is calculated using a special formula using the series numbers and passport number.
From 11 to 13 positions - “RUS” (Russian Federation code), indicating the citizenship of the passport holder.

14-19 positions - date of birth. The first two digits are the year, the second two are the month, the third two are the day. If the day and (or) month of birth is unknown, then 0 will appear in the corresponding positions.

Position 20 is a control digit calculated using the digits of the date of birth.

21 positions - gender of the passport holder. “M” is male, “F” is female.

From 22 to 27 positions - the expiration date of the passport.

The 28th position is a check digit, which is a filler character.

Positions 29-42 - additional data, but not about the owner, but about the passport itself. The last digit of the passport series is entered here first, then the date of its issue (the first two digits are the year, the second two are the month, the third two are the day). Next, enter the code of the FMS department that issued the passport using a six-digit number without spaces or hyphens. A filler character is added to position 42. (So, information about passport series 4601 No. 123456, issued on June 20, 2010 by a unit with code 770-120 should be recorded in the Ministry of Emergency Situations as 1100620770120).

Position 43 is a control digit, calculated using the digits of the “additional data” positions.

Position 44 is the final check digit, the calculation of which uses numbers from MChZ positions 1 - 10, 14 - 20, 22 - 28, 29 - 43.

Actually, this is all that the machine-readable record contains - as you can see, nothing more than what is usually indicated in the passport: full name, gender, date of birth, date and place of issue of the document.

In addition, you need to understand that, regardless of your desire or opinion regarding the content of the MChZ in your passport, now ONLY SUCH passports of a citizen of the Russian Federation are issued. And every Russian, including Vyksa residents, must have an identification document.

Additionally
In passports of the 2011 model, the place for the photograph is indicated by corners. Don't let them confuse you, as do the two black rectangular reference marks - they are used to position the printer when filling out the form. Once the photo is posted, these marks are not visually distinguishable.

In addition, the entire third page is for
data protection - laminated with a film with a holographic image.
Reference. The rules and method for creating a machine-readable record are established by the Federal Migration Service in agreement with the interested federal executive authorities. The rules and method for forming a filled MChZ zone in the passport were approved by Order of the Federal Migration Service of Russia dated June 30, 2011 No. 279.

About passports issued earlier. They are valid within known periods, that is, they will need to be changed only upon reaching the legal age - 20 and 45 years. For military personnel undergoing military service upon conscription, passports are issued or replaced at the end of the established period of military service.

Application. Rules and method for creating a machine-readable entry in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, identifying the identity of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation

Order of the Federal Migration Service of June 30, 2011 N 279
"On approval of the Rules and method of forming a machine-readable entry in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, identifying the identity of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation"

In accordance with paragraph 9 of the Description of the passport form for a citizen of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 8, 1997 N 828, I order:

Approve the attached Rules and the method of generating a machine-readable entry in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, which identifies the identity of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Director

K. Romodanovsky

______________________________

* Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1997, No. 28, Art. 3444; 1999, N 41, art. 4918; 2001, N 3, art. 242; 2002, N 4, art. 330; 2003, N 27, art. 2813; 2004, N 5, art. 374; 2006, N 52, art. 5596; 2008, N 14, art. 1412; 2010, N 33, art. 4433; 2011, N 22, art. 3190.

According to the description of the Russian citizen passport form, on its 3rd page there is an area for making a machine-readable entry (the lower quarter opposite the fold). From July 1, 2011, passports are issued with this zone filled out. The rules and method for generating the specified record have been approved.

The entry must contain the gender, full name, date of birth of the passport holder, series and number of the latter, code of the issuing department and date of issue. Designations of the type of document, the state that issued the passport, and the citizenship of the owner of the latter must also be given.

The entry consists of 2 lines of 44 characters.

To fill out the positions of characters 6-44 of the top line, the “modernized clear” information encoding method is used, in which Russian letters correspond to Latin letters and Arabic numerals.

To fill in the positions of the characters on the bottom line, as a general rule, a digital data encoding method is used.

The term machine readable passports (MRPs) may seem somewhat cumbersome and old-fashioned these days, reminiscent of the times when nanometers were still called millimicrons, computers were still called electronic computing machines, and program code was loaded using punched cards. This is not surprising, since the automation of the process of reading passport data began in earnest back in the 60s of the last century 1 .

In 1968, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) created a specialized committee on “passport cards”, which published ICAO Doc9303 “Machine Readable Passport” in 1980, resulting in the issuance of the first machine-readable passports, visas and other travel documents ( Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD) in the USA, Canada, Australia and other countries.

It is clear why ICAO began to intensively deal with SMEs: this is the acceleration of passenger traffic at airports, and reducing the role of the “human factor” due to partial automation of the process of passing passport and visa control, and, ultimately, increasing the economic efficiency and level of safety of air transportation. Despite the undoubted importance of all these tasks, at first they might seem to some to be quite local, relating only to the aviation industry. However, this turned out not to be the case.

In the context of increasing globalization of the economy, all these problems quickly “outgrew” the scope of international air passenger transportation alone. As a result, thanks to detailed study that lasted more than one year, ICAO documents were taken as the basis for the creation of legislative documents and regulations in many countries, including Russia. And once again finalized in 1997, Doc9303 became the only one of its kind, if you look at the number of countries that used it, a de facto standard. In particular, the recommendations of Doc9303 were taken into account by the overwhelming majority of member countries of the Chicago Convention, which regulates international civil aviation flights, and introduced machine readable and other types of documents.

Passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation with a machine-readable code

Source: Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research Institute "Voskhod"

Interestingly, the work of ICAO had a direct impact not only on unified formats for international passports, visas and any other machine-readable documents needed to cross borders by air, water or land, but also on documents such as internal passports of some countries. The list of these countries includes Russia, where the issuance of new internal passports began on July 1, 2011. Their main difference from passports of previous series is that they are machine readable: a special code appears at the bottom of the photo page.

The evolutionary process of transforming a Russian paper passport into a machine-readable one can best be traced using the example of international passports. After all, they have become the testing ground where new technologies for internal passports and other Russian documents are first tested.

How it all began

In order for a document to become machine readable, an appropriate additional entry must be made into it. No matter how trivial it may sound, but for this, a free space must be left in the document, called the machine-readable zone (MRZ).

The first Russian international passport with a machine-readable zone that was blank at that time appeared almost 15 years ago - at the end of 1996. These were foreign passports of the 50th series, issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1999, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to fill this zone - in passports of the next, 51st series. They became the first Russian SMEs.

Finally and irrevocably, all new Russian passports became machine readable only on April 1, 2004, when the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which also issued foreign passports along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, switched to the 62nd series, where the MChZ was filled out in accordance with ICAO standards. Russian passports without MChZ began to be issued only in special cases specifically provided for by law, most often associated with emergency needs.

In the same 2004, in accordance with Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 928, the Federal Migration Service (FMS of Russia) took over passports, and from January 1, 2006, the mass issuance of all passports completely came under its jurisdiction. In particular, Russian foreign passports are issued today to every citizen of the Russian Federation, regardless of his age, and the validity of the last “non-machine readable” foreign passport will expire no later than November 24, 2015, which means that Russian foreign passports comply with the basic ICAO recommendations and will not create additional bureaucratic problems for Russians traveling abroad with them.

Machine reading technology

Thus, any modern passport or other machine-readable document, issued in accordance with the ICAO provisions accepted throughout the world today, is distinguished by the fact that additional lines have been added to it. They are a kind of barcode designed to be read by an optical scanner.

The striking difference - the absence of the black and white stripes of barcodes that have become familiar today - does not change the essence of the matter. In particular, as with most of the most common linear barcodes, it is possible to enter a set of machine-readable string characters from the keyboard in case of failure of the scanning equipment.

The Russian foreign passport and new internal passports contain unified machine-readable records, since this, in particular, makes it possible to use the same equipment when recognizing them. At the same time, it is clear that ICAO standards, which primarily concern general rules for the preparation of international documents, cannot regulate in detail the process of issuing and processing passports, especially internal ones.

In this regard, the rules and method for creating a machine-readable entry in the internal passport of the Russian Federation, identifying the identity of a citizen of the Russian Federation on its territory, are described in detail in the departmental instructions of the FMS. According to these documents, the full name is entered into the MChZ in Latin letters. citizen, information about his date of birth, date of issue of passport, series, number, code of the unit that issued the passport. Other data is also included: gender, citizenship information, etc. The record generation algorithm is such that each internal Russian passport corresponds to a single, unique machine-readable record, the main task of which is to ensure the ability to quickly transfer information about the passport holder to the appropriate information system, to eliminate delays and errors, which are almost inevitable in cases where the same Most of it is done by hand.

At the same time, technical data is also added to the machine-readable code - check digits obtained by calculation, space fillers, etc., which are needed solely to improve the quality of recognition. It makes sense to note that they do not contain any additional semantic information about the passport holder, which could not be read in a very simple way that does not require any instructions or decoding equipment. To do this, you just need to open your passport and read what is written in it on its first pages.

It is interesting that, generally speaking, there is more information recorded on the pages of a passport in the usual way than in machine code, which is due to technological limitations. For example, in those rare cases when a citizen’s last name is long, it is abbreviated at the 34th character. After all, in a Russian internal passport, machine-readable lines contain a total of only 88 characters.

Big help from a small chip

Since the topic of machine-readable documents began decades ago, more promising technologies have emerged than optical recognition, on which all barcoding is based.

The general political situation has also changed significantly: problems associated with illegal migration, the fight against international terrorism have intensified, passenger flows have increased, etc. All this has led to the fact that there has been a rather urgent need to make passport and visa documents more secure and more reliable. check the fact that the bearer of the document is its true, legal owner, which means adding more information to the document.

The idea of ​​introducing more and more new entries and methods of protection against forgery into a paper document, and then duplicating the information using machine-readable code, exhausted itself in the new conditions quite quickly: ultimately, such a passport would turn into something similar to a small book or folder with documents covered in all sorts of barcodes, and therefore looking somewhat mysterious to ordinary citizens.

It should be noted that even in the most modern two-dimensional barcode it is almost impossible to place high-quality images. Even if document producers go this route, they usually encode not the original image itself, but a template created based on it. The reason for this is simple: the template size is usually at least an order of magnitude smaller than the original image.

Seaman's Identity Card

Source: Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research Institute "Voskhod", 2011

The seafarer's ID card, in addition to machine-readable lines, contains a two-dimensional barcode with a template made from fingerprint images. Photo courtesy of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research Institute "Voskhod"

Meanwhile, the urgent need to add full-fledged source images to documents, not compressed by one or another algorithm or method, has also appeared. After the high-profile terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US-Visit program began to operate in the United States, within the framework of which citizens of other countries entering the United States, in particular, began to require images of fingerprints. European countries have introduced similar requirements.

ICAO could not help but react to all these changes and began to act with the systematicity characteristic of this organization. In particular, in 2003, the ICAO working group decided to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, recommended facial biometrics as the main method of recognition, etc.; in 2006, an additional second volume appeared as part of ICAO Doc 9303, dedicated to electronic passports containing a chip with a 2D image, etc. All this led to the emergence of a new, “electronic” generation of standardized documents, in which microcircuits began to be introduced.

The use of chips made it possible to increase the volume of text and graphic information contained in the passport, which did not in any way affect its physical dimensions. Moreover, thanks to the tiny size of the chip itself, it has become theoretically possible to fit the entire volume of passport information and additional information not in the usual passport “book”, but, for example, in a miniature plastic card.

However, it makes sense to emphasize that currently chips and RFID technology are used in new passport documents not as a replacement, but as an addition to already proven “printing”, “optical” and other methods of protecting and transmitting information.

Anton Stepanov

1 - The article was prepared with the support and on the basis of materials provided by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research Institute "Voskhod".

People should have a choice of how to communicate with the state

Konstantin Romodanovsky, director of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation, answered CNews’ questions.

CNews: The Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia became one of the first government bodies of the Russian Federation that began providing electronic government services to citizens. On April 1, 2010, the Russian Federal Migration Service announced that it was ready to accept applications for international passports through the website gosuslugi.ru. Tell us about the main stages of work that preceded this event.

In accordance with government orders, the Federal Migration Service took the necessary organizational measures and made changes to regulations. In particular, working groups were created in each regional and territorial body of the Federal Migration Service of Russia, whose responsibilities included the provision of public services in electronic form. Methodological classes were conducted, a survey was organized not only of informatization objects, but also, to a greater extent, of public services themselves - how to provide them correctly, in what form, and whether this requires a revision of the entire procedure for providing the service. Then, based on the results obtained, changes were prepared to the administrative regulations for the provision of public services and work with citizens.

At the same time, serious technological preparation was carried out. A new software tool “Employee's Office” was developed and integrated with the government services portal. Thus, all information left by a citizen on the portal automatically ends up in the “office” of a FMS employee, where it is processed. This solution is remarkable in that it allows organizing an almost direct electronic dialogue, which minimizes the time spent by both the citizen and the department employee, and also leaves no room for the services of various intermediaries.

For example, a citizen sends a completed form to the department’s email address. An FMS employee must review it within 24 hours and either accept it for execution or return it to the applicant with specific notes - change one or another field. It is clear that such a dialogue is more convenient to conduct remotely than while standing in line. Then, when the application form is approved, the citizen is also scheduled via the Internet for an appointment to be photographed (if we are talking about new generation passport and visa documents) or to receive a document.

Currently, in addition to issuing passports, a full service is provided for providing address and reference information. A citizen can request information about a relative or just an acquaintance, and his contact information will be sent to this acquaintance so that he can contact him. If the requested person is not in the databases, this will also be reported. Thus, the service, which was previously provided in address and reference services, is now fully automated and available remotely through the government services portal.

It has become known how the numbers of the machine-readable record, which has been added to Russian passports since July 1, 2011, are deciphered. The Federal Migration Service has approved the Rules and method for creating a machine-readable entry in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. According to the document, the data is arranged from left to right in two fixed-length lines. The first two positions are reserved for the capital letters “PN” (Passport National), followed by “RUS” - the three-letter code of the Russian Federation. The remaining space in the top line is occupied by the last name, first name, and patronymic in the nominative case. The document contains instructions in case this data is too short or long:

Last name and first name are separated by two characters. First and patronymic names, as well as components of double or complex surnames (first names, patronymics) are separated by one filler character. If the last name, first name and patronymic, including separator characters, are less than 39 characters, then the empty positions after the last letter of the middle name are filled with filler characters. If the surname and first name, including filler characters, are 37 characters or less, then the full surname and first name are entered in the line, the patronymic is abbreviated by the letter, which is the 44th character of the line. If the last name and first name, including filler characters, are 38 characters or more, then the full last name is entered in the line, the first name is abbreviated by a letter, which is the 42nd character of the line, after one filler character the first letter of the patronymic is entered. If the surname is more than 34 characters, then the surname is abbreviated by a letter, which is the 39th character of the line, after two filler characters, the first letter of the name, the filler character, the first letter of the patronymic are sequentially entered... The hyphen in the surname, first name, patronymic is replaced by the sign - placeholder.

The second, bottom line begins with the first three digits of the series and the six digits of the passport number. This is followed by a check digit and an indication of citizenship - capital letters "RUS". Familiar places from 14 to 19 are filled with information about the date of birth: two digits for the year, month and day. If the day and (or) month of birth is not known, 0 is indicated in the corresponding positions. Then comes the check digit and the gender of the passport holder: “F” - female, “M” - male. The next 6 characters are the expiration date of the passport. The period is calculated in accordance with legal acts based on the date of issue of the passport and the date of birth of the owner. Additional data elements occupy positions from 29 to 42. The last digit in the passport series, the date of issue (6 digits, two for the year, month and day), as well as the code of the department that issued the passport, without a hyphen, are printed there. For example, information about passport series 4601 N 123456, issued on June 20, 2010 by a department with code 770-120, should be written as follows: 1100620770120. The regulation provides explanations to help calculate the control figures, including the final one. Let us remind you that from July 1, 2011, a machine-readable entry will be added to newly issued passports of Russian citizens. This is provided for by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 27, 2011 No. 424. It corrects one of the clauses of the Regulations on the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 07/08/1997 N 828. The new legal act states:

The machine-readable record contains... the basic information available in this document: last name, first name, patronymic, date of birth (date, month, year) of the passport holder, gender of the passport holder, series and number of the passport, code of the department that issued the passport, date of issue of the passport , as well as designations of the type of document, the state that issued the passport, the citizenship of the passport holder...

From July 1, all this data will be entered on the third page of the identity document. At the same time, old passports will be valid in accordance with the Regulations: they will need to be changed at 20 and 45 years of age. Let us remind you that according to the Regulations on the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, the following marks are made in it:

• on registration of a citizen at the place of residence and deregistration - by the relevant registration authorities;
• on the attitude towards military service of citizens who have reached the age of 18 - by the relevant military commissariats and territorial bodies of the Federal Migration Service;
• on registration and divorce - by the relevant bodies carrying out state registration of acts of civil status on the territory of the Russian Federation, and by the territorial bodies of the Federal Migration Service;
• about children (citizens of the Russian Federation under 14 years of age) - by territorial bodies of the Federal Migration Service;
• about previously issued basic documents identifying a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of the Russian Federation - by territorial bodies of the Federal Migration Service;
• on the issuance of basic documents identifying a citizen of the Russian Federation outside the Russian Federation - by territorial bodies of the Federal Migration Service or other authorized bodies.

At the request of the citizen, health care institutions can indicate the blood type and Rh factor in the passport, and tax authorities can indicate the TIN. It is prohibited to enter information, marks and entries into the passport that are not provided for by the Regulations. The issuance and replacement of passports is carried out by the Federal Migration Service in the manner prescribed by Order of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation dated December 7, 2009 N 339. This document approved the corresponding Administrative Regulations.