Are Paper Passports Passe? 

Will Digital ID Replace the Classic Passport for International Travel?

If you journeyed abroad anytime within the last few years, you recognize the power of the passport. Obtaining one felt like a real achievement – a step into adulthood. And losing one was a terrifying prospect, a nightmare of statelessness, a bad scene out of a Cold War-era spy film.

I just noticed that my passport expired at the end of 2024. I haven’t used it in over four years, thanks to a little plan-wrecker like a global pandemic. I hadn’t given it much thought until a friend’s stray remark led me to look for it – I’d forgotten it buried in a suitcase at the back of my closet. Looking online for the latest renewal instructions, I discovered something shocking – for me, at least:  the passport, that prized totem of travel, is headed for extinction.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The virtual has replaced a huge amount of the actual since the rise of the digital world. Magazines, books, vinyl records, cassette tapes – all these and more have fought a losing battle against their cyber-versions.

 In December 2024, Wired’s Matt Burgess begins his piece on the subject this way:  “In a matter of years, no matter where you live or travel, your face will likely be your new passport.”

Face recognition technology and smartphones are used to confirm your identity and travel data in more and more locales in Europe, India, and Asia. And it’s been happening for a while. Way back in February 2023, The Guardian (UK) quoted Phil Douglas, Director General of Border Force at the Home Office, UK, who envisions “a world of completely frictionless borders where you don’t really need a passport.”

Louise Cole, head of Customer Experience at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has its headquarters in Canada, is also a booster for a world without passports. The Guardian describes how the IATA and airlines are exploring…. 

“A ‘One ID’ plan where flight passengers have entered

all information – and ultimately pre-cleared international

borders – digitally before leaving home. In this vision,

Cole said, “You don’t need to take a passport – or stop

and show the airlines at the check-in counter or boarding

gate that you’re able to travel. We’re looking to use digital

identification technology and leverage that to make it a

super smooth experience. “You get to security, they’re

expecting you – and the same for the customs and borders

at the other end.”

I suppose they’ll find a way to do it. And I suppose that, in time, I’ll get used to it. But I’ll never forget the thrill of handing that navy blue booklet with its stiff pages and unflattering photo to passport control at Orly Airport. With a brisk, brusque movement, my passport was stamped, and I walked onto French soil for the very first time.

I won’t forget a similar emotion when – my return flight from Paris – I went through the same process at JFK. The man in uniform looked at me, looked at my photo, looked at me again…then stamped my passport.

“Welcome home,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, and meant it. I retrieved my precious passport which had transported me to the City of Light and walked toward the exit.