A U.S. passport number contains nine characters: one letter followed by eight digits on books issued since 2021, or nine digits on older books issued before that changeover.1U.S. Department of State. Information about the Next Generation U.S. Passport So if you’re counting the numbers in a current U.S. passport, you’ll find eight digits plus one leading letter. If you’re holding a pre-2021 passport, all nine characters are digits.
The U.S. Format in Detail
The Next Generation U.S. passport book, rolled out in 2021, uses an alphanumeric number: one letter and then eight digits. Once you renew an older all-numeric passport, your new book will follow the letter-plus-digits format. The letter counts as part of the number, so any time you type it into a visa application, an airline booking, or a government form, include it.
The U.S. passport card also carries a nine-character number.2U.S. Department of State. Get a Passport Card The card and the book are separate documents with separate numbers, so if you hold both, don’t confuse them on forms.
Passport Number Lengths in Other Countries
Most countries issue passport numbers between eight and eleven characters, mixing letters and digits in patterns that vary by nation.
- United Kingdom: nine numerical digits. Current UK books also print a separate serial number on the security film, but that isn’t the passport number.3HM Passport Office. Basic Passport Checks (Accessible)
- Canada: nine characters, arranged as one letter, six digits, and two letters.4Government of Canada. Features of Canada’s New Passport
- Australia: eight or nine alphanumeric characters, starting with one or two letters followed by seven digits.
- Germany: nine to eleven characters. The first is always a letter, followed by a mix of digits and letters, with an optional check digit. Germany restricts the opening letter to C, F, G, H, J, or K to avoid confusion with lookalike digits.
- France: nine characters, arranged as two digits, two letters, and five digits. No checksum.
- India: eight characters, one uppercase letter followed by seven digits.
Why Nine Is the Common Length
The International Civil Aviation Organization sets global passport formatting rules through Document 9303. The standard allocates exactly nine character positions for the document number in the Machine Readable Zone at the bottom of the biodata page, which is why most countries design their passport numbers to fit within nine characters.5International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO Doc 9303 – Part 4 Countries can use any combination of letters and digits within that space. If a number has fewer than nine characters, the empty positions are padded with a filler character (<), and position ten of that line holds a check digit calculated from the number itself.
Nine isn’t an absolute ceiling. If a country uses a longer number, the nine principal characters go into the MRZ and the full number appears elsewhere on the biodata page.6International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO Doc 9303 – Part 7 Germany’s eleven-character numbers are handled through that overflow mechanism. Most countries stay within nine.
Where to Find Your Number
Your passport number is printed on the biodata page, the same page that carries your photograph and personal details, usually near the upper-right corner. Newer U.S. passport books also print the number at the bottom of every page throughout the booklet. Many countries perforate or laser-engrave the number through subsequent pages as a security measure; current UK passports laser-perforate it from the title page through the rear cover.3HM Passport Office. Basic Passport Checks (Accessible)
The number also appears in the first nine positions of the second line of the MRZ, the block of coded text at the bottom of the biodata page. That’s what gets read when your passport goes through an automated gate or a border officer’s scanner.
Your Number Changes When You Renew
Every new passport you receive gets a completely new number, and the old number is deactivated when the previous document is cancelled.7U.S. Department of State. Frequently Asked Questions about Passport Services This catches people out at renewal, because visa applications, airline loyalty accounts, trusted traveler profiles, and hotel reservations all reference the old number. Build time into your renewal to update those records, particularly Global Entry and any active visas linked to the expired book.
If you need an old passport number for records but no longer have the physical document, you can submit a Request for File Search to the State Department. You won’t receive a copy of the old passport, only verification of the record.