There are several areas of vulnerability that governments must overcome as they structure the processes under which they provide passports to their citizens. Failure to do so results in the issuance of passports that facilitate criminal activity. Such passports will not be respected when citizens try to use them for international travel. Among the most important processes are those adopted to ensure that the passport applicant is who he says he is, and those that prevent fraud in the adjudication of entitlement to a passport. In the following excerpt from the International Civil Aviation Organization`s `Minimum Security Standards for The Handling and Issuance Of Machine Readable (and other) Passports`, specific recommendations are presented for minimising the risk of fraudulent applicants obtaining a passport successfully. As a 38-year veteran of the U.S. Department of State`s Passport Office, John M. Hotchner has held the position of Director of Internal Controls for eight years and is currently Director of Passport Policy and Legal Advisory Services. The prevention of fraud and malfeasance is a major part of his focus. In preparing this article and the paper from which it is derived, he relied on extensive international experience. He recently served as Chairman of the Education and Promotion Working Group of the ICAO Technical Advisory Group on Machine Readable Travel Documents.