E-Passports Get New Port Of CallE-Passports Get New Port Of Call

The Department of Homeland Security will begin testing passports embedded with radio-frequency identification chips at the San Francisco International Airport in the next few weeks.

Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore issue passports with RFID chips, and San Francisco is a likely spot for people with those passports to pass through. "We're bringing technology to the borders and chose RFID as one to help reach the goals of expediting safe entrance," says a Homeland Security spokeswoman.

The State Department in October posted regulations for passports issued after October 2006, which will have RFID chips containing the holder's personal data and digital photo. Specifications for the passports were developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

San Francisco isn't the first U.S. city to test RFID-enabled passports. Through its US-Visit program, an initiative intended, in part, to improve the collection of information on foreign nationals traveling to and from the United States, Homeland Security in the fall tested the new passports at the Los Angeles International Airport. RFID chips that carry a unique ID number also have been embedded in I-94 forms carried by people who regularly cross U.S. borders to work.