Access Control
& Security Systems

Americans living abroad will be furnished with a new passport incorporating a digitized image of the holder and other security features.

Overseas passport issuance is being transferred to the National Passport Processing Center, Portsmouth, N.H., instead of at embassies and consulates as in the past. Consulates and embassies will continue to issue temporary emergency papers, but they do not have the technology required to produce the new passports.

According to Philip T. Reeker, deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, the new passport has "features that make it one of the most secure travel documents produced anywhere in the world. Getting these more secure passports into circulation will help minimize the misuse of American passports by criminals, terrorists and others."

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