On 29-30 September 2005, ICAO held a symposium titled ICAO-Standard MRTDs and Biometric Enhancement. It was prompted by a new ICAO Standard which obliges all 189 ICAO Contracting States to issue only ICAO-standard Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) by April 2010. Accordingly, the symposium’s main objective was to provide an overview of the most important features and benefits of globally interoperable and ICAO-compliant Machine Readable Documents (MRTDs), including biometrics-enabled versions. MRTDs improve security while simultaneously facilitating the processing of documents to the benefit of passengers and national governments.