What is the purpose of the odd sticker in a new British passport?
I have just renewed my British passport, and it contains a very strange sticker. I made a photo of it...
It says "Please remove this label". By feeling and pressing the sticker I do not detect anything underneath it. Holding to the light reveals nothing. The pages behind this page are all blank. There is no explanation in the guidance brochure they sent along with the passport (I am one of those people that reads every word of the guidance). Below the sticker there is some text, if you read paragraph 7 you learn that tampering with a British passport may be actionable as a criminal offence. Incredible to relate, this text is on the same page as the sticker they want you to remove.
Is the purpose of this sticker simply to prove I have examined the passport? Does it replace the wet signature the end user should provide? Or does it flag up if I walk near a scanner? Some kind of electronic signal? If not, what is the purpose of this sticker?
I will be renewing my American passport later this year. Will it have the same thing? Something that needs to be removed where there's no apparent underlying purpose? What are the Americans doing?
I do not know the answer and for reasons not worth exposing here I am reluctant to remove it. Yes, I know I can raise paperwork to the Passport Office for an explanation, but it takes a long time and a medium probability of having to approach the Commissioner to get it resolved. And when their answer finally arrived, there's a very good chance I wouldn't believe it anyway.
Question: what is the purpose of the "Please remove this label" sticker.
Adding...
There is an existing thread on the net and Nate Eldredge (to whom thanks) provided the link. Some ideas were floated but the thread degenerated into silly conjectures. They didn't nail it down. If it is some sort of progress indicator, why is it not on the cover?
A blog entry discovered by cicto (to whom thanks) presents a credible discussion that the sticker contains an electronic circuit. But when it gets to purpose, the article descends into speculation.
Best Answer
HMPO have now included a little note along with the passport that says "the label on the back of your passport was used during the production process and can now be removed".
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Can I remove the sticker on my passport?
First, remove the sticker as best you can with your fingernail or a plastic card from your wallet. Once you're done getting the largest, easiest pieces of sticker removed, dab you fingertip in olive oil. It doesn't take much, just rub it into the passport where there's stubborn sticky stuff enough to cover it entirely.What is the emblem on the British passport?
Current issue British passports are navy blue. appears at the bottom of the front cover. The rear cover of blue passports are also embossed with the floral emblems of England (Tudor rose), Northern Ireland (Shamrock), Scotland (Scottish thistle) and Wales (daffodil). appears at the bottom of the front cover.What is on the front cover of a British passport?
The bio data (personal details) page is at the front of the passport and located on page 2. The passport chip is located in the cover of the passport.What do the words mean on the front of a British passport?
\u201cDieu et mon droit,\u201d or \u201cGod and my right,\u201d are the words featured on the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (minus Scotland). They are frequently found throughout London engraved on old buildings, or even on the British passport.Britain's Blue Passports: Everything You Need to Know - TLDR News
More answers regarding what is the purpose of the odd sticker in a new British passport?
Answer 2
The level of conspiracy theories here is amazing. The sticker is not for tracking, but to prevent tracking. It is placed so that when the passport is closed, it interferes with any signal coming from the passport's own RFID tag which is now in the cover. In other words, it's a "cloaking device" to prevent interference with delivery tracking systems (which are in the envelope) and identification of the enclosed item as a passport - which is really easy to do from about five meters away using professional gear once the sticker is removed. (Professional gear available for about £40 from Maplin if you know what to buy - your phone will only work from about 3cm)
As for it being a method for "forcing" people to fall foul of tampering laws, I have a big roll of aluminium foil available for anyone who's worried about it. Of course, that foil is also useful for blocking RFID, so why not wrap your passport in it.
Answer 3
The new passport contain an RFID chip in the back cover of the passport, I suspect the yellow sticker is actually to disable the embedded RFID chip, to stop it from being read while the passport is being delivered. The position of the yellow stick on the page before the back cover seems to correspond with the position of the RFID in the back cover.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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