Why join the ICAO PKD?
If you have not already done so, you are encouraged to read the sections ePassport Basics and ePassport Validation. These pages provide some of the important foundational knowledge that will help you understand the value of the ICAO PKD.
Issuer Perspective: From the perspective of an ePassport issuer, it is important to ensure that border authorities around the world can validate the ePassports that you issue. If the ePassports that you issue are not being validated, you are not fully leveraging the investment you made. Furthermore, ePassports that cannot be validated must essentially be considered and treated as a non-electronic travel document.
The ICAO PKD provides a means of distributing your information to other States that is efficient, reliable, and always accessible.
Border Authority Perspective: From the perspective of a border authority, performing ePassport validation (according to the provisions of Doc 9303 7th Edition, Part 12) provides confidence that the travel document under inspection has been issued by the proper authorities and that the information recorded on the document has not been tampered with. It is important to have access to the information necessary to perform ePassport validation.
The ICAO PKD provides a means of accessing the Document Signers, Certificate Revocation Lists and Master Lists published by other States in a cost efficient way that is always available. The ICAO PKD Board is further working on a project to make an ICAO PKD Master List [insert hyperlink to ML info on site] available which will be a significant addition to the services offered by the ICAO PKD
Traveler Perspective: ePassports provide States with a simplified means of providing automated border control systems. This is because the ePassport can be electronically validated and the biometric (facial image) on the chip can be used for facial recognition. As more States begin issuing ePassports and implementing automated border control systems, travel should be increasingly facilitated and streamlined for ePassport holders.
The ICAO PKD is the most efficient and reliable means of both providing and accessing the information required for ePassport validation.