Class PassportInfo

Passport info struct containing all fields decoded from the ICAO 9303 MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) and, where available, the VIZ (Visual Inspection Zone).

MRZ fields (machine-extracted, highly reliable): DocumentType, Surname, GivenNames, PassportNumber, Country / IssuingCountryCode, Nationality / NationalityCode, DateOfBirth, Gender, DateOfExpiry, PersonalNumber.

VIZ fields (best-effort from full OCR text, may be empty): DateOfIssue.

Raw codes vs mapped names: Properties like Country and Nationality return English names mapped from ISO 3166-1 alpha-3. For custom localization, use the raw codes IssuingCountryCode and NationalityCode to perform your own mapping.

Inheritance

System.Object

PassportInfo

Implements

System.IEquatable<PassportInfo>

Namespace: IronOcr

Assembly: IronOcr.dll

Syntax

public sealed class PassportInfo : ValueType

The fields decoded from a passport, name, number, nationality, dates, and the rest, arrive in C# as a PassportInfo record. It holds everything pulled from the ICAO 9303 Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) and, where available, the Visual Inspection Zone (VIZ), so a developer reads typed properties instead of parsing the raw MRZ string by hand. It is the structured payload of a passport read, separate from the surrounding OcrPassportResult that also carries the raw Text and a Confidence score.

A PassportInfo is obtained from the PassportInfo property of an OcrPassportResult, which IronTesseract.ReadPassport returns. A developer rarely constructs one directly: the read fills it from the document, and code then reads the properties it needs. Because it is a value-type struct that implements IEquatable<PassportInfo>, two instances compare by value, and the static Empty field gives a clear "nothing decoded" sentinel to check against.

The machine-extracted MRZ fields are the reliable core: Surname, GivenNames, PassportNumber, DocumentType, Nationality, Country, and the DateOfBirth and DateOfExpiry dates. The supplementary set, DateOfIssue, IssuingCountryCode, NationalityCode, PersonalNumber, and Gender, fills in where the VIZ or extended MRZ supplies it and may be blank otherwise. The InvalidCountryCodePrefix constant marks a country value the decoder could not validate, so checking for that prefix flags a code worth a second look. Read the fields a workflow needs and validate the dates and numbers against expected formats before trusting them downstream.

using IronOcr;

var ocr = new IronTesseract();
using var input = new OcrImageInput("passport.png");
OcrPassportResult result = ocr.ReadPassport(input);
PassportInfo info = result.PassportInfo;
Console.WriteLine($"{info.Surname}, {info.GivenNames} - {info.PassportNumber}");

The read passport how-to walks through MRZ extraction end to end, the passport reading example shows the decoded fields in code, and the scanned document how-to covers cleaning up a scan before the read.

Constructors

PassportInfo(String, String, String, String, String, String)

Initializes a new instance of the PassportInfo struct with the core MRZ fields.

This constructor is preserved for binary compatibility with existing compiled code.

Declaration

public PassportInfo(string surname, string givenName, string passportNumber, string country, string dateOfBirth, string dateOfExpiry)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	surname	Holder's surname.
System.String	givenName	Holder's given name(s).
System.String	passportNumber	Passport number.
System.String	country	Issuing state/country English name.
System.String	dateOfBirth	Date of birth formatted as yyyy-MM-dd.
System.String	dateOfExpiry	Expiry date formatted as yyyy-MM-dd.

PassportInfo(String, String, String, String, String, String, Gender, String, String, String, String, String, String)

Initializes a new instance of the PassportInfo struct with all MRZ and VIZ decoded fields.

Declaration

public PassportInfo(string surname, string givenName, string passportNumber, string country, string dateOfBirth, string dateOfExpiry, Gender gender, string documentType, string nationality, string personalNumber, string dateOfIssue, string issuingCountryCode, string nationalityCode)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	surname	Holder's surname decoded from MRZ first row.
System.String	givenName	Holder's given name(s) decoded from MRZ first row.
System.String	passportNumber	Passport number from MRZ second row, positions 1-9.
System.String	country	Issuing state/country English name, mapped from MRZ first row positions 3-5.
System.String	dateOfBirth	Date of birth formatted as yyyy-MM-dd.
System.String	dateOfExpiry	Expiry date formatted as yyyy-MM-dd.
Gender	gender	Gender extracted from MRZ second row position 21.
System.String	documentType	Document type from MRZ first row positions 1-2 (e.g. "P", "PS").
System.String	nationality	Holder's nationality English name, mapped from MRZ second row positions 11-13.
System.String	personalNumber	Optional personal/national ID number from MRZ second row positions 29-42.
System.String	dateOfIssue	Date of issue in yyyy-MM-dd format, extracted from VIZ (not in MRZ).
System.String	issuingCountryCode	Raw ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the issuing state (e.g. "HRV", "USA").
System.String	nationalityCode	Raw ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the holder's nationality (e.g. "HRV", "USA").

Fields

Empty

A default empty PassportInfo with all string fields initialized to empty strings.

Declaration

public static readonly PassportInfo Empty

Field Value

Type	Description
PassportInfo

InvalidCountryCodePrefix

Prefix used in Country and Nationality when a country code from the MRZ could not be resolved to a known country name.

Example value: "Invalid country code (XYZ)".

Usage: if (info.Country.StartsWith(PassportInfo.InvalidCountryCodePrefix)) { ... }

Declaration

public const string InvalidCountryCodePrefix = "Invalid country code"

Field Value

Type	Description
System.String

Properties

Country

Issuing state/country English name, mapped from the three-letter country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3).

This is the country that issued the passport. For the holder's nationality, see Nationality.

For the raw ISO alpha-3 code (e.g. "HRV", "USA"), see IssuingCountryCode.

Declaration

public string Country { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

DateOfBirth

Holder's date of birth in yyyy-MM-dd format.

Returns an empty string if the date could not be parsed from the MRZ.

Declaration

public string DateOfBirth { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

DateOfExpiry

Passport expiry date in yyyy-MM-dd format.

Returns an empty string if the date could not be parsed from the MRZ.

Declaration

public string DateOfExpiry { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

DateOfIssue

Passport issue date in yyyy-MM-dd format.

Note: This field is not part of the ICAO 9303 MRZ. It is extracted on a best-effort basis from the VIZ (Visual Inspection Zone) — the human-readable printed area of the passport.

Returns an empty string if extraction was not successful.

Declaration

public string DateOfIssue { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

DocumentType

Document type indicator.

Typically "P" for a standard passport. The second character may indicate a subtype, e.g. "PD" for diplomatic passport, "PS" for service passport, or only "P" if no subtype.

Declaration

public string DocumentType { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Gender

Holder's Gender/sex.

'M' = Male, 'F' = Female, 'X' or '<' = Unspecified.

Declaration

public Gender Gender { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
Gender

GivenNames

Holder's given name(s).

Multiple given names are separated by spaces.

Declaration

public string GivenNames { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

IssuingCountryCode

Raw ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the issuing state (e.g. "HRV", "USA", "GBR").

Use this for custom localization or when you need the standard code rather than the English name from Country.

Declaration

public string IssuingCountryCode { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Nationality

Holder's nationality English name, mapped from the three-letter code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3).

This may differ from Country (the issuing state) for dual citizens or diplomatic passports.

For the raw ISO alpha-3 code (e.g. "HRV", "USA"), see NationalityCode.

Declaration

public string Nationality { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

NationalityCode

Raw ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the holder's nationality (e.g. "HRV", "USA", "GBR").

Use this for custom localization or when you need the standard code rather than the English name from Nationality.

Declaration

public string NationalityCode { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

PassportNumber

Unique passport number.

Declaration

public string PassportNumber { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

PersonalNumber

Optional personal number (typically a national ID number).

This field is optional per ICAO 9303. Returns an empty string if not present or filled with '<' characters.

Declaration

public string PersonalNumber { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Surname

Holder's surname (family name).

Declaration

public string Surname { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Methods

Equals(PassportInfo)

Declaration

public bool Equals(PassportInfo others)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
PassportInfo	others

Returns

Type	Description
System.Boolean

Equals(Object)

Declaration

public override bool Equals(object obj)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.Object	obj

Returns

Type	Description
System.Boolean

GetHashCode()

Declaration

public override int GetHashCode()

Returns

Type	Description
System.Int32

Operators

Equality(PassportInfo, PassportInfo)

Equality operator.

Declaration

public static bool operator ==(PassportInfo left, PassportInfo right)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
PassportInfo	left
PassportInfo	right

Returns

Type	Description
System.Boolean

Inequality(PassportInfo, PassportInfo)

Inequality operator.

Declaration

public static bool operator !=(PassportInfo left, PassportInfo right)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
PassportInfo	left
PassportInfo	right

Returns

Type	Description
System.Boolean

Implements

System.IEquatable<>