Passport Number
Verification API

Where the passport number verification API fits in onboarding

A passport number verification API is most useful at the point where a customer has typed or uploaded passport details and you need to know, before going further, that those details are real. Running the passport number verification API at that moment turns a document the customer shows you into a record you have checked: the passport number, name, nationality and expiry date come back from the check rather than from the form.

Typical places to call the passport number verification API include account opening for non-resident and frequently travelling customers, onboarding for travel and forex platforms, and any flow where a passport is the customer's chosen officially valid document.

Reading the response

Treat each field the passport number verification API returns as a separate signal. Compare the returned name with the name on the application using a tolerant name match, because transliteration and initials vary. Check the expiry date against the date of the transaction, since an expired passport should not be accepted as a current identity document. Store the result and the time of the check so you can show an auditor exactly what was verified and when.

When the passport number verification API returns no match, do not reject the customer outright. Ask them to re-check the number they entered, because typing errors are far more common than fraud, and route repeated failures to manual review.

Pairing it with other checks

A passport number verification API confirms that the document details are genuine; it does not prove that the person in front of you is the passport holder. For that, pair the passport number verification API with a face match against a live selfie, and add a bank account or PAN check where your risk policy needs more than one source. Keeping each check separate makes it easy to explain why a customer was approved, and easy to change one step without rebuilding the whole flow around the passport number verification API.

Consent and data handling

Tell the customer why you are checking their passport and get their consent before you call the passport number verification API. Keep only the fields your process needs, restrict who can see them, and set a retention period that matches your regulatory obligations. If a customer asks what was checked, you should be able to show them the result of the passport number verification API and the date it ran.

Test the flow in the sandbox first, including the failure cases, so your team knows exactly how the product behaves when a number is mistyped, a passport has expired or the source is briefly unavailable.

Once the integration is live, review a sample of passport number verification API results each month: how many passed first time, how many needed a retry and how many went to manual review. Those numbers show where customers struggle and whether your thresholds need adjusting.