More than basic details: What border officials know about you

Sydney Morning Herald

20-07-2025

'I have been wondering about what information is actually contained in your passport data,' writes Traveller reader Judi LeVine of Manly, NSW. 'In the past it seems as though the immigration people have spent a rather long time staring at their screens after they have scanned my passport and I am wondering what they are looking at? Is all of your past travel history there to peruse or is there other information about your identity or some other history?'
The answer is, all of the above, plus a whole lot more that you probably wouldn't expect. If you want a short answer, it's not so much what immigration officers can see about you, but what they can't.
What an immigration officer sees when they scan your passport
In a typical case, the officer has access to the chip embedded in an e-passport, the Passenger Name Record (PNR) submitted by an airline and information from security databases. Passport details include the traveller's full name, date and place of birth, nationality, passport number, issuing state, expiry date and a digitised copy of the passport holder's photo. They can also see the traveller's visa type, validity dates and any refusal-of-entry records or previous overstays.
Meanwhile, the camera at the immigration booth compares the image of the passenger with the one stored in the chip and makes a match or no-match response. In some countries, including the US, European Union nations and Australia, the immigration officer can also see every recorded entry and exit to the country, and overstays, remarks and, in the case of the EU, days remaining under the Schengen area's 90-day rule. The security database is sourced from Interpol, national watch lists and terrorism and criminal databases.
The secrets your PNR number holds
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The PNR is the six-digit string of characters and numbers, also known as a booking reference number or record locator, that a passenger is assigned when they make an airline booking. Far more than just a record of a flight booking, the PNR links to a trough of information. Much of that information overlaps with what is available from the passport chip, but there's more data relating to the traveller's movements including all flight segments on that booking with dates and times, connecting flights and seat numbers, fare class, how the passenger paid for their ticket, the number of checked bags, the source of the booking, travel agent contact information, meal preference, visa information, travel authorisations and names of other passengers travelling on the same reservation and email address. Most commercial airlines will send the PNR records of all passengers on a flight to the destination country some 48 to 72 hours before a flight departure.
The PNR record also links to Advance Passenger Information System (API) data, which backs up some of the PNR data but may also include more granular details, such as a traveller's destination address in some countries. API data is collected at the check-in desk or before boarding an international flight. Australia was an early adopter, requiring airlines to send API data as early as 2000.