Which countries currently do not issue biometric passports and how often is that list updated?
Executive summary
There is no single, authoritative, up‑to‑date global roster of countries that "do not issue biometric passports"; most public trackers and encyclopedias show that an overwhelming majority of states now issue e‑passports, with industry sources reporting roughly 178 countries with NFC/ePassport capability by mid‑2025 [1] and reference sites noting nearly universal adoption across regions [2] [3]. The practical upshot: a small number of states and specific passport series remain non‑biometric, but exact membership and status change frequently and must be checked against multiple, frequently updated sources [4] [1].
1. How widespread biometric passports are — the broad picture
Biometric passports have become the global norm: industry reporting counted 178 countries issuing contactless chip (ePassport) passports by May 2025, a number that has grown steadily since the technology’s wider rollout [1], and encyclopedic surveys observe that “most countries are issuing biometric passports” as interoperability standards and PKI infrastructure spread [2]. Independent commentators and regional surveys likewise show near‑universal adoption across Europe and many other regions, while noting a handful of holdouts or delayed rollouts [3] [5].
2. Why a definitive "non‑biometric countries" list is hard to produce
No single international agency publishes a legally binding master list of non‑biometric passports; instead, researchers, media outlets and commercial vendors compile their own lists based on government releases and document‑reading capability tests [1] [4]. Those compilations differ in scope (some cover national ID cards as well as passports), timing, and method: academic or volunteer lists may lag official changes, commercial readers report what they can technically read, and encyclopedias rely on crowd‑edited updates [1] [4] [2].
3. Examples and nuance — partial, shifting exceptions
Some well‑publicized exceptions are narrow or transitional: sources note that specific Israeli passports issued at airports or outside Israel were non‑biometric as of early 2022 [2], and small‑state coverage changes (e.g., Vietnam and Jamaica moving to biometric identity cards while passport transitions lagged) illustrate how identity programs can be phased in across document types [4]. Regional reporting also highlights policy changes that effectively make non‑biometric passports unusable for travel — for example, several European states announced rules from 2025–2026 restricting entry with older non‑biometric Russian passport series [6] [7] — underlining that “non‑biometric” status can have immediate travel consequences even where the country technically still issues older formats.
4. How often the status list is updated — varied rhythms, not a single cadence
Update frequency depends on the source: commercial readers and industry blogs report and refresh coverage in real time or semi‑annually as authentication certificate sets and technical reach expand (Signicat’s ReadID data was current to May 2025) [1]; specialist blogs and aggregators publish periodic lists and corrections (Calctopia referenced 2023 changes) [4]; Wikipedia and similar crowd‑edited pages are updated continuously by contributors but are not an official registry [2] [3]. Governments publish official changes when they introduce new passport programs, but those releases are irregular and vary by country.
5. What trustworthy practice looks like for a user or analyst
To determine which countries do not issue biometric passports at a given moment, cross‑check three types of sources: official government passport pages, a reputable industry tracker of ePassport certificates/readability (which provides a technical count of chip‑enabled passports) and a curated encyclopedia or academic overview [1] [2]. Each source compensates for the others’ blind spots — technical reach, policy nuance, and real‑world issuance — because no single source provides an always‑accurate global "non‑biometric" list [1] [4] [3].
6. Caveats, agendas and places to be skeptical
Commercial vendors have incentives to emphasize chip coverage to sell verification services; hobbyist or single‑author lists can over‑ or under‑count small states or transitional programs; and political reporting sometimes frames technical changes as security measures or sanctions without noting technical interoperability details [1] [4] [6]. Readers should treat any static list as a snapshot and verify with primary government notices when travel or legal status depends on whether a passport is biometric.