Latvia’s new ePassport: where security meets art

Issued for the first time in February 2024 by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA), the new Latvian ePassport marks the latest chapter in a successful collaboration between the Latvian government and Veridos (a joint venture between G+D and the Bundesdruckerei) dating back to 1991. The result is a masterpiece of both technological innovation and artistry. 

“A passport isn’t just a security document; it’s also a window into the country’s identity,” says Carsten Müller, Director International Sales & Business Development, Veridos. “We worked hard to ensure that the Latvian ePassport not only secures the identity of the holder and integrity of the document, but also reflects national pride through its design.” 

Cutting-edge passport security

Passport technology must constantly evolve to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated security threats. In recent decades, governments worldwide have gradually transitioned to more secure and durable polycarbonate data pages. For a long time, however, this meant reverting to black and white images for the primary passport holder portrait due to the technical challenges of printing in color on polycarbonate.

Thanks to Veridos’s CLIP ID Echo technology – the latest generation of Color Laser Image Protected ID solution – the new Latvian ePassport achieves what few others have: a secure and lifelike color photo on the polycarbonate page. 

By combining these security elements, Veridos and OCMA went above and beyond to deliver a new ePassport that sets a new standard in Europe and internationally.

“Typically, governments seek to increase the security of new ID documents by adding one or two features that, while new to them, may already exist in the market,” says Carsten Müller. “What sets this project apart is the simultaneous introduction of four new security features, each of which is entirely new to the market. The result is one of the most secure and innovative documents on the market.”

To underscore OCMA and Veridos’s achievement, Latvia is only the third EU country after Germany and Greece, and one of a handful of countries worldwide, to issue an ePassport with a color photo on a polycarbonate data page. 

A design that inspires

But security is only one part of the equation; the new Latvian ePassport also excels on aesthetics. 

In most passports around the world, national symbols are often integrated to reflect a snapshot of the country’s culture and evoke a sense of national identity. For example, the Bundesadler (“federal eagle”) features prominently in the German passport, while the Bangladesh passport showcases famous monuments and its national animal, the Bengal tiger. 

The previous generation of the Latvian passport paid homage to country’s cultural heritage, featuring the traditional General Song and Dance Festival alongside other national symbols, such as lyrics from the national anthem and the Latvian coat of arms. The new passport continues this tradition, with each page a celebration of the Baltic state’s natural beauty and geographical diversity. Featuring 20 native birds – including the crane – the designs are inspired by scenes captured by photographer Andris Eglītis. 

But it’s under UV light that these picturesque scenes truly come to life in a spectrum of UV colors. “If you look closely, you’ll see the reflector on a bike shift to red, as it would in real life,” said Carsten Müller. “On the beach, you see the glistening of small pebbles in the sunlight. These tiny details demonstrate the sophistication and expertise that went into producing this document.” 

A new benchmark in passport technology

These efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. In April 2024, the ePassport was named Regional ID Document of the Year at the Reconnaissance High Security Printing (HSP) EMEA 2024 industry conference. “We are very happy for our partners at the Latvian authorities and congratulate them on this award,” said Marc-Julian Siewert, CEO of Veridos, earlier this year. “Latvia’s new ePassport seamlessly combines aesthetics with state-of-the-art security and redefines the possibilities of document authentication.”

With the passport successfully launched, the project has now entered its second phase: Veridos will continue to deliver the documents and provide service and maintenance of the personalization system for the next five years.

By then, the majority of Latvian citizens will have migrated to the new generation, making them holders of one of the most secure and visually appealing identity documents in the world.