Brazilian Passport Validator

Brazilian passport: format, issuance and the ICAO 9303 standard

The Brazilian passport is the official travel document of the Federative Republic of Brazil, issued by the Polícia Federal (PF) through the Department of Maritime, Airport and Border Police (DPMAF). Its number follows a fixed pattern of 2 letters + 6 digits — for example AB123456 or FA000001 — and is printed in the data page as well as encoded in the machine-readable zone (MRZ) at the bottom of the booklet.

The two-letter series increments sequentially as books are exhausted: emission started at AA and is currently in the G series for common passports. Each series covers approximately one million booklets. The 6-digit suffix is the sequential number within the series. There are three booklet colors and three documents:

• Common (blue) — ordinary passport for civilians.
• Official (green) — government employees on mission abroad.
• Diplomatic (red) — issued by Itamaraty (MRE) to diplomats and senior officials.

Issuance: cost, validity and the appointment flow

Issuance is a paid process. As of 2026 the federal fee (GRU) is R$ 257,25, payable at the Banco do Brasil. The applicant must schedule an appointment on the PF portal, attend in person to collect biometrics (fingerprints and photograph) and present an original RG with a date of issue less than 10 years old plus proof of the GRU payment. Validity: 10 years for adults; 5 years for minors under 18; 1 year only for very young children where biometric capture is impractical. From 2010 onward all Brazilian passports are eMRTD — they contain an NFC chip storing the data page and biometric reference, compliant with ICAO Doc 9303.

ICAO 9303 and the MRZ checksum

The Machine-Readable Zone at the foot of the data page contains two lines of 44 OCR-B characters each. ICAO Doc 9303 specifies a check-digit formula that protects the most error-prone fields:

• Document number (positions 1-9 of MRZ line 2).
• Date of birth (YYMMDD).
• Date of expiry (YYMMDD).
• Personal number (often blank in BR passports).
• Composite check digit covering all of the above.

Each digit uses the weights 7, 3, 1, 7, 3, 1, ..., with letters mapped via A=10, B=11, ..., Z=35 and the filler character < mapped to 0. The sum modulo 10 yields the check digit. This is the only verification universally available offline:

weights = [7, 3, 1]
sum     = Σ value[i] * weights[i mod 3]
DV      = sum mod 10

Where it is used: visas, Mercosul and visa-free travel

A Brazilian passport opens visa-free entry to more than 170 countries as of 2026, including the entire EU/Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Japan and South Korea. Major destinations still requiring a visa: United States, Canada (reinstated visa requirement in 2025), Australia, China, Russia and several African countries. Within Mercosul (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and the associated states), Brazilians can cross with the RG alone — passport is optional.

Lost, stolen and the limits of public lookup

A lost or stolen passport must be reported to the PF immediately. The agency feeds the Interpol Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, queried by border control worldwide and by Schengen members through the SIS II system. Unlike the CPF (lookup at Receita) or the title of voter (TSE consulta), the PF does not expose a public API to check passport validity. Third-party services that claim such lookups are either scraping protected portals or are fake. This validator runs local format and MRZ checksum verification only — no network call is made — and is therefore well suited to:

• Travel booking flows that need to short-circuit obvious typos before calling an airline API.
• Hotel and tourism platforms validating guest data at check-in.
• Mock data generation for QA of Brazilian-traveler features.
• Onboarding screens in fintechs serving Brazilian expats.

FAQ

Is there a free public lookup to check if a passport number is valid? No. The Polícia Federal does not expose a public API. Only ICAO MRZ checksums and format checks are possible offline — both implemented in this tool.

How long does a child's passport last? 5 years for minors aged 12 to 17; for younger children validity is often shorter (down to 1 year) because biometric features change quickly.

Does the ICAO MRZ algorithm really validate any passport? Yes for the MRZ checksums. The composite check digit catches errors in document number, dates and personal number — useful for OCR-based input. It does not, however, prove the booklet exists or is regular.

Can I travel within Mercosul without a passport? Yes. Brazil's RG (with date of issue less than 10 years) is accepted at land and air borders within Mercosul countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador).

Do I need to be Brazilian to use this validator? No. Anyone can paste a passport number with the AB123456 shape; the tool only checks format and ICAO arithmetic. No data is sent to a server.