Ask the expert: Does my face replace my passport?

If your face is the key to your security, do you still need your passport to travel?

In October 2025, the European Union began implementing its new Entry/Exit System, or EES, at airports, which replaces passport processing with a face and fingerprint scan. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been using an Enhanced Passenger Processing, or EPP, system that takes a facial scan to assess U.S. citizen travelers’ biometric data to validate entry.

Anil Jain is a University Distinguished Professor in the Michigan State University College of Engineering and a global expert on biometrics, the unique features that can identify a person such as your fingerprints or a face scan. Here, Jain explains how facial scans provide a safe, convenient and speedy way for passengers to get through airport security ahead of the holiday travel season.

When were biometrics first used for airport security?

After Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act, which required law enforcement agencies to investigate and expand their surveillance to combat terrorism and share more information with intelligence agencies. Also, Congress authorized the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, under the Homeland Security Act. As a result, the DHS introduced US-VISIT, which used fingerprint recognition for screening all nonimmigrant visa holders at all ports of entry to determine if they had a prior criminal record. Since driver’s licenses and passports could be faked, increased security technologies using biometrics were installed at all U.S. ports of entry starting in 2004.

In early 2000, accuracy of facial recognition technology, say for comparing a selfie to passport photo, was poor. So, everybody relied on using fingerprints to confirm someone’s identity. Anyone who was arrested and booked at the police station had all ten fingerprints recorded using ink, along with their mug shot photo. This was a time-consuming and messy process, not conducive for travelers’ identity at airports.

How has biometric technology improved?

There was a significant improvement in fingerprint capture when we moved from ink on paper to flatbed scanners for faster and digital acquisition of fingerprints. For faster throughput at border checkpoints, immigration agents started by collecting only the left and right thumbprints. But, when the prints were compared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s database, investigators soon realized that they needed to capture all 10 fingerprints to have the best identification accuracy. So, in 2007, US-VISIT started capturing all 10 fingerprints of arriving passengers: four fingers on the left hand, four fingers on the right hand and both thumbs, referred to as 4-4-2 fingerprint capture.

In the EU’s EES process, a photo of each passenger is taken at the originating airport and sent to the destination airport. So, the airline crew can confirm who got on the flight and who is getting off the plane. For example, if I were boarding an international flight from Detroit to Paris, I would stand in front of the camera in Detroit and by the time I get to Paris, the immigration agents in Paris would already have the picture of me and can verify that I arrived on that specific flight from Detroit. This is referred to as a digital ID because you are just presenting your face and your face scan is already in the system. The system is looking for a face match, and you don’t need to present your identity documents like a passport. It’s much faster, resulting in a higher throughput at immigration checkpoints.

Recently, when I landed in Detroit from Amsterdam, I didn’t even have to give my passport to the immigration agent. He said, ‘Just look at the camera; we got you,’ and ‘Okay, you can go.’ It’s extremely fast and is referred to as a contactless processing because you don’t touch any surface, you didn’t provide any fingerprints and you just looked at the camera.

Since 2010, automated face recognition has become extremely accurate. Our team has contributed to the advancement of face recognition research. For example, Nippon Electric Company, or NEC, in Japan is a major vendor whose face recognition systems are used at major airports. NEC licensed our large-scale face matching algorithm in 2016. The use of biometrics enables us to know who is passing through airport security and who is flying out or flying into the airport.

Are there privacy concerns about the EES or EPP systems?

Biometric attributes such as fingerprints and face scans constitute personally identifiable information. There are privacy concerns related to who is acquiring this information, how it will be used and how will it be stored. People are more sensitive about privacy and understand that the government and other organizations are capturing your face for safety, convenience and speed. The main thing is to ensure that the biometric database is secure, and the data is being used only for the purpose for which it is being collected. For Transportation Safety Administration checkpoints and for immigration clearance, biometrics should only be used to make sure that only ticketed passengers who are not on any watchlist and with valid visa or passport are getting on the flight and entering our country. I believe we are on the right track in terms of biometric usage.

This is why the DHS maintains a dynamic watchlist that grows based on the threat level. A higher threat level increases the number of people on the watchlist. We want to make it harder for criminals and terrorists to enter in to the U.S. and travel around without inconveniencing valid passengers. Obviously, the more stringent the security is, the more time you’ll spend in security lines. It is a trade-off between security and convenience.

The U.S. is one of the countries with perhaps the largest volume of air traffic passengers each year. The Atlanta airport alone handled 14.6 million international passengers in 2024.

What is the next advance in biometrics?

There is ongoing research to further improve the accuracy of face recognition systems, especially if we move away from human border agents to an automated kiosk. We also want to make sure that the face that is presented to the camera is a real face and not someone wearing a mask.

Identifying security threats is a “cat and mouse” game and it’s not easy. I think we are winning the race in this situation, but we always have to be on guard, and we can’t be too laid back.

Do I still need my passport to travel?

Yes, you still need your passport. Both the EU’s EES and U.S.’s EPP systems require a valid passport for verification.