Government-issued ID

A passport, driver's license, or national ID card.

It is the official photo document a government issues to prove who a person is, and the one most businesses ask to see first when they need to confirm identity.

An identity document issued by a state authority carrying machine-readable and physical security features.

Government-issued IDs come in several common types:

• Passports, which are internationally recognized travel documents and often carry an electronic chip.
• Driver's licenses, which many countries use as everyday photo ID.
• National ID cards, which some countries issue to all citizens or residents.
• Residence permits, which identify non-citizens who live in a country.

These documents carry features that help verify them:

• Physical security features, such as holograms, microprint, and UV ink.
• Machine-readable elements, such as the machine-readable zone on a passport or a barcode on a driver's license.
• Electronic chips, which store signed data that a device can read and check.

Government-issued IDs sit next to terms that are easy to mix up:

• Document verification checks whether a given ID is real and unaltered.
• Proof of address confirms where a person lives, which an ID does not always show.
• Digital identity is the broader set of data and credentials that represent a person online, including a digital copy of an ID.

For more, see What is a Biometric Passport or e-Passport?