Travelers to the United States are generally required to present documentation verifying their identity and nationality and, for non-U.S. citizens, their eligibility to enter the United States. Acceptable travel documents for entry into the United States include, among others, passports, visas, and U.S military identity cards. In 2004, Congress, in an effort to further secure U.S. borders, mandated the development and implementation of a plan that requires U.S. citizens to have a passport or other document that demonstrates their identity and citizenship when entering the United States. State and DHS implemented this requirement for air ports of entry on January 23, 2007, and are to implement the requirement for land and sea ports before June 1, 2009. State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is responsible for the design and issuance of passports for U.S. citizens and visas for all foreign aliens requiring a visa for entry into the United States. CBP is responsible for inspecting these documents and permitting entry to travelers at designated air, land, and sea U.S. ports of entry. In addition, State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, in collaboration with State’s Office of Inspector General, DHS and other U.S. agencies, and foreign law enforcement entities, is responsible for investigating suspected fraud of passports and visas. The security of passports and visas and the ability to prevent and detect their fraudulent use are dependent upon a combination of well-designed security features, solid issuance procedures for the production of the document and review of the application, and solid inspection procedures that utilize available security features. Figure 1 below presents the key elements of a secure travel document. A well-designed document has limited utility if it is not well-produced or inspectors do not utilize the security features to verify the authenticity of the document and its bearer. In fiscal year 2006, about 12 million passports and almost 6 million visas were issued, according to State. As of April 2007, there are 74 million valid passports and almost 34 million visas, including 9 million BCCs, in circulation. A passport is not only a travel document required of U.S. citizens for international travel and re-entry into the United States by air, but also an official verification of the bearer’s origin, identity, and nationality. Under U.S. law, the Secretary of State has the authority to issue passports, which may be valid for up to 10 years. Only U.S. nationals may obtain a U.S. passport, and evidence of citizenship or nationality is required with every passport application. Federal regulations list those who do not qualify for a passport, including those who are subjects of a federal felony arrest warrant. See appendix II for additional information on the types of U.S. passports. In addition, State is currently developing a passport card that will serve as an alternative travel document for re-entry into the United States by U.S. citizens at land and sea ports of entry. A visa is a travel document for people seeking to travel to the United States for a specific purpose, including to immigrate, study, visit, or conduct business; the document allows a person to travel to a United States port of entry and ask for permission to enter the country. While consular officers within State are responsible for determining a person’s eligibility to enter the United States for a specific purpose, CBP officers have the ultimate authority to permit entry into the United States. State issues two types of visas: (1) a visa foil attached to the visa pages of a foreign passport, for nonimmigrant or immigrant travel to the United States; and (2) the BCC for limited travel by Mexican citizens within the United States’ southern border. Visas can be issued for a validity period of up to 10 years. Threats to the security of travel documents include counterfeiting a complete travel document, construction of a fraudulent document, photo substitution, deletion or alteration of text, removal and substitution of pages, theft of genuine blank documents, and assumed identity by imposters. Features of travel documents are assessed by their capacity to secure a travel document against the following: counterfeiting: unauthorized construction or reproduction of a travel document. forgery: fraudulent alteration of a travel document. imposters: use of a legitimate travel document by people falsely representing themselves as legitimate document holders. Most reported passport and visa fraud is imposter-related fraud. In fiscal year 2006, CBP detected 21,292 fraudulent U.S. passports, visas, and BCCs presented by travelers attempting to enter the United States through a U.S. port of entry. (See table 1.) Nearly 80 percent of these documents were genuine documents presented by imposters. The most frequent fraudulent attempts were by imposters attempting to use a legitimate BCC, while the fraudulent use of passport and visa more often involved attempts to counterfeit or alter the document. The following cases illustrate attempts to fraudulently use U.S. travel documents to enter the United States: In November 2005, CBP officers intercepted a Ghanian citizen with an altered U.S. visa. The visa photo was manually retouched to bear closer resemblance to the photo substituted into the biographical page of the passport. In June 2006, a Chinese citizen was found in possession of a counterfeit U.S. passport. Printing and other errors on the biographic page and another page alerted authorities that the passport was counterfeit. In January 2007, a Brazilian citizen, using a genuine U.S. visa, attempted to enter the United States as an imposter. CBP officers confirmed the traveler was an imposter and was attempting to enter the United States to seek employment. Applicants commit passport application fraud through various means, including submitting false claims of lost, stolen, or mutilated passports; child substitution; and counterfeit citizenship documents. According to State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security investigators, imposters’ use of assumed identities, supported by genuine but fraudulently obtained identification documents, is a common and successful way to fraudulently obtain a passport. This method accounted for about 65 percent of 3,703 total confirmed passport fraud cases investigated by the bureau in fiscal year 2006, according to Diplomatic Security documentation. To combat document fraud, security features are used in a wide variety of documents, including currency, identification documents, and bank checks. Security features are used to prevent or deter the fraudulent alteration or counterfeiting of such documents. In some cases, an altered or counterfeit document can be detected because it does not have the look and feel of a genuine document. For instance, detailed designs and figures are often used on documents with specific fonts and colors. While such aspects are not specifically designed to prevent the use of altered or counterfeit documents, inspectors can often use them to identify nongenuine documents. In some cases, security features can be observed with the naked eye. But for others, tools may be necessary to verify the existence of a security feature. For instance, to read microprinting, it may be necessary to have a magnifying glass or a loupe. To see features on pages printed with ultraviolet fluorescent ink, it is necessary to have an ultraviolet light source. In particular, electronic equipment is required to read electronic features such as biometrics or digital signatures from the travel document. While security features can be assessed by their individual ability to help prevent the fraudulent use of the document, it is more useful to consider the entire document design and how all of the security features help to accomplish this task. Layered security features tend to provide better document security by minimizing the risk that the compromise of any individual feature of the document will allow for the unfettered fraudulent use of the document. Individual document security features are known to different levels of people. For instance, some security features are known only by forensic examiners, while other features are more widely known by specialized law enforcement personnel. GPO produces and delivers blank passports to the domestic passport- issuing offices. State operates 17 domestic passport-issuing offices, where most passports are issued each year. In addition, in the spring of 2007, State opened a new passport production facility for the personalization of passport books. The majority of passport applications are submitted by mail or in person at one of 8,500 passport application acceptance facilities nationwide, which include post offices; federal, state and probate courts; public libraries; and county and municipal offices. The passport acceptance agents at these facilities are responsible for, among other things, verifying whether an applicant’s identification document, such as a driver’s license, actually matches the applicant. Then, at the domestic passport-issuing offices, passport examiners determine—through a process called adjudication—whether they should issue each applicant a passport. See appendix IV for an overview of the passport issuance process. State manages the visa process, as well as the consular officer corps and its functions at 219 visa-issuing posts overseas. The process for determining who will be issued or refused a visa contains several steps, including documentation reviews, in-person interviews, collection of biometrics (facial image and fingerprints), and cross-referencing an applicant’s name against the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS)—State’s name-check database that posts use to access critical information for visa adjudication. In some cases, a consular officer may determine the need for a Security Advisory Opinion, which is information provided from Washington to the post regarding whether to issue a visa to the applicant. See appendix IV for an overview of the visa issuance process. In general, at ports of entry, travelers seeking admission to the United States must present themselves and a valid travel document, such as a passport or a U.S. visa, for inspection to a CBP officer.