Developing an electronic passport and visa system using smart card technology

Fast improvement process and the ease to use of the technology has increased the usage of itin common and important places for us in daliy life. In the past, we were using the manual posterminals for our credit card process but after then they have been replaced with the fullyautomated ones. Likewise in the time of the becoming widespread the cellphones were onlyproviding us to talk to or to messaging with other people but nowadays they have megapixelcameras as well as built-in fm radios.Besides the technological improvements, the cost of high capacity computers which wasabout hundred thousand US dollars in the past has decreased dramatically to few hundred USdollars. These changes did not occur only in PC prices, they also can be seen in highresolution scanners as well as high quality printers. All of these changes caused the processesthose were being made on the paper can be copied or changed easily and this made us toquestion the security of these kinds of document processes in deep.From the past to now, the most popular places, where the paper based processes have beingexecuted, are belonging to government. Countries (which Turkey is also one of them)developed their computer systems and changed the existing paper based systems with thesenew ones but among the different departments there is still lack of digital communication.That short of interaction causes paper traffic inside the departments and also betweengovernment and people. This is one of the most difficult problems that governments werebeing faced.To control the migration and security in a country, government has to take several actionsagainst them. Passports and visas are the mechanisms for controlling the borders and alsotheir citizens abroad. The fraud on these paper based documents has been done since the pastand several things has being tried to avoid these trials. However by the help of thetechnological improvements, it become easier to take control of these illegal actions. In orderto avoid forgeries or global fraud, document based passports/visas need to be replaced.Instead, a sophisticated token with high security features, not easy to forge, should be used.The aim of this thesis is to provide a securely strong and easy to apply electronic passport andvisa solution by using smartcard and biometrics technology.Keywords: Passport, visa, electronic passport, smartcard, security