Digital Travel Credentials: how a passport on your phone would work at the border

What a Digital Travel Credential is

ICAO defines a DTC as a travel credential in digital form that meets its DTC technical reports and is meant to replace a conventional passport, for a time or for good, with a digital version of the traveller's identity ¹. ICAO published high-level guidance on DTCs in June 2024 ¹.

Every DTC has two parts. The virtual component holds the digital version of the holder's identity. The physical component is cryptographically linked to the virtual component ¹.

The European Commission describes a DTC as a digital copy of the data stored on a passport or identity card. It includes the data in the chip, with the holder's facial image, but not fingerprints ^4,5.

The three ICAO DTC types

ICAO describes three types, named for what serves as the physical component ¹. ICAO says travellers will still need physical passports for many years to meet national rules or as a backup ¹.

Where the standards stand

ICAO says the first phase of its DTC work is complete. In that phase a DTC behaves like a passport book, with the physical component on a passport or a contactless smart card ¹.

The second phase is under way. It explores new protocols, including putting the physical component on a mobile phone ¹. ICAO says its DTC specifications will be incorporated into Doc 9303, the ICAO standard for machine readable travel documents, once that work is done ¹.

The Finland pilot

The Finnish Border Guard ran a DTC pilot at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport from 28 August 2023 to 31 March 2024 ². Partners were the Finnish Police, Finnair, the Finnish Immigration Service and the airport operator Finavia ². In the last phase, DTC was available on all Finnair flights leaving the Schengen area from Helsinki-Vantaa ².

Volunteers registered in a mobile app and sent their travel document data to the Border Guard before the trip. At the border they looked at a camera and held their passport over a reader ². 466 people took part and 355 DTC border controls were completed, with an average control time of about eight seconds ².

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs funded the pilot with 2.3 million euros ². A parallel pilot ran in Zagreb, Croatia, on flights to and from countries outside the EU ². The Border Guard says the results feed into EU DTC law and ICAO standards work ².

The Netherlands and Canada pilot

On 29 February 2024, KLM flight KL672 from Montreal landed at Amsterdam Schiphol with passengers using a DTC ³. The pilot tested DTC-1 combined with facial recognition at border control and ran until 31 March 2024 ³.

The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the National Office for Identity Data ran it at the request of the European Commission ³. They worked with the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, Schiphol, KLM and the technology supplier Idemia ³.

KLM passengers flying from Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal could join if they were over 18 and held a Belgian, Dutch or Canadian passport ³. They uploaded passport data and a face photo in an app before the trip, so border checks could start before arrival ³. At Schiphol, a face scan at a DTC gate pulled up the credential, and travellers held their passport against the gate. If the two matched and earlier checks raised nothing, they could pass. A physical passport was still required ³.

The EU Digital Travel application proposal

On 8 October 2024, the European Commission proposed a common framework for digital travel credentials and a new EU Digital Travel application ⁴. The Commission noted almost 600 million crossings recorded at EU external borders in 2023 ⁴. Using a DTC would be voluntary and free ⁴.

The app would check that a travel document is genuine and unaltered, match the user's face to the chip image, send travel data to border authorities for advance checks, and store the DTC on the phone ⁵. It would be open to EU and non-EU citizens with a biometric passport or EU identity card travelling to or from the Schengen area ⁴. The Commission said the EU agency eu-LISA would build and test the app, that it would be available from 2030, and that member states could start issuing DTCs before then ⁵.

Member state representatives agreed the Council of the EU's negotiating position on 19 November 2025 ⁶. The Council wants travellers to be able to use their DTC to pre-submit Entry/Exit System data and for ETIAS and visa applications, and says travellers must still carry their passport or ID card at external borders ⁶. The European Parliament's civil liberties committee voted on 3 December 2025 to open negotiations, which the full Parliament confirmed on 17 December 2025 ⁷. A legislative tracker listed the file at the trilogue negotiation stage in July 2026 ⁸. This site found no final adoption as of 19 October 2026.