Government-issued ID documents, including passports, driver’s licenses, ID cards, or residence permits, are widely accepted documents for Know Your Customer, or KYC verification. Oftentimes, the user is asked to capture one of these documents automatically by either taking a photo using their phone/laptop or fitting it into the system’s frame, allowing the KYC software to automatically assess all of the security features and personal data, extracting it from the document.
This helps the user not enter any information manually, making the process simple and quick. However, ID verification is here for a reason, and that is to prevent identity fraud and ensure compliance in high-risk, regulated industries, as part of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. And with the high-speed development of AI, it’s now used not only for technological advancements like this, but also for bypassing security systems like user onboarding and document forgery.
I review how document verification works in KYC and look into different countries and their passports, including those that are commonly considered to be the hardest to verify, showing why certain types have better approval rates than others.
How Does the Process of Passport Verification Work for KYC?
In the context of KYC compliance, passport verification works by automatically checking if the user’s passport is valid and authentic, verifying if it belongs to the real passport holder who’s completing the KYC check in real time.
In general, passport verification follows these stages:
- Document capture. The user takes their physical passport to photograph or capture an image through a special KYC verification interface (it can be a Magic Link, a QR code, an app, or a third-party pop-up window/an automated redirect on the user’s device).
- KYC data extraction. The system identifies the passport’s country of origin and relevant data zones, such as the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ), and, using OCR, extracts personal details (full name, DOB, nationality and passport number plus expiration date).
- Security element check. The verification system cross-checks the MRZ, comparing it with other KYC fields while checking all necessary security features, like the overall passport template or font, for signs of forgery or alteration.
Often, special KYC software is used to speed up the whole process and is paired with other KYC checks, such as biometric verification, where the user’s facial features are also assessed and cross-matched with the portrait on their passport. Afterwards, the final verification result is provided to the user.
Flagged or suspicious cases can be put into the manual queue, where a human analyst re-checks the KYC session, reviewing the submitted passport and selfie. Sometimes, it can be a false positive, which makes it beneficial to use a dual approach with a manual review on top instead of relying purely on automation.
Examples of the Hardest Passports to Verify
Our team at iDenfy conducted in-house research on passports and their KYC approval rate, comparing how the software (automated approval rate) and the analyst team (manual approval rate) confirm passports from various countries around the world. iDenfy has both methods, and you can choose either software only or a mix of both with human reviews on top.
A quick look into the research:
- We used internal passport verification data from Q3 2026 specifically.
- We analyzed completed verifications across 220+ countries and territories.
- We included only countries with 500+ completed KYC verification sessions using a passport to avoid jumping to conclusions when relying on small samples.
| Country | Document-related flags per 100 verifications |
|---|---|
| 1. Uzbekistan | 16.5 |
| 2. India | 16.1 |
| 3. Nepal | 11.2 |
| 4. Indonesia | 11.0 |
| 5. Bangladesh | 10.8 |
| 6. Thailand | 10.8 |
| 7. Philippines | 10.4 |
| 8. Kenya | 10.2 |
| 9. Zimbabwe | 9.9 |
| 10. Dominican Republic | 9.9 |
The table ranks the 10 hardest passports to verify based on document-related flags per 100 completed verifications in iDenfy’s KYC data.
-> Document flags indicate cases where a passport required additional manual review.
-> One verification can be flagged for more than one reason, so these figures show flags per 100 verifications, not the share of rejected sessions.
Key findings:
- Passport verification doesn’t perform equally across the world. Across iDenfy’s research, the average is 7.0 document-related flags per 100 passport verifications.
- The average KYC approval rate depends on the concrete solution, operating industry, and, more importantly, the KYC document used by the customer.
- Lower passport approval rates aren’t automatically a bad thing, since effective fraud prevention is still required. Lighter checks aren’t always the right approach in high-risk industries where KYC bypassing attempts are more frequent.
A KYC approval rate that’s considered to be appropriate in today’s standards ranges between 75% and 90%. For example, in e-commerce or an age-restricted shop where only a facial age estimation is required, and the friction for the end-user is minimal, the approval rates are higher, while financial industries that have multiple elements in their KYC onboarding flow have lower approval rates.
-> Last updated on October 13, 2026, to match the latest insights.
The full list:
1. Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan tops the list with 16.5 document-related flags per 100 verifications, more than twice the global average. Most of these come from double-checking the authenticity manually for signs like an invalid MRZ, a damaged document, or a passport photographed from a screen instead of in person.
2. India
Indian passports follow close behind with 16.1 flags per 100 verifications, which is above the average. This puts India alongside Uzbekistan as one of the two passports in the research where iDenfy’s KYC system flagged the passports due to the strongest possibility of authenticity issues. In general, India is in the middle of one of the largest passport transitions in the world. Since May 28, 2025, every passport issued in India has been an e-passport, with more than 8 million issued by late 2025.
3. Nepal
Nepal has 11.2 flags per 100 verifications. An interesting fact is that Nepal moved to e-passports in November 2021, with a chip and a polycarbonate data page. It had issued machine-readable passports since 2010. Existing MRPs stay valid until their expiry dates, and both formats were issued side by side during the transition.
4. Indonesia
Indonesia’s 11.0 flags come from passport authenticity checks. Like Nepal, it’s a case where the passport is easy for the system to read automatically but still harder to confirm as genuine or valid when manual double-checking is required. Our expertise at iDenfy shows that this fits a country that issues several passport types at once.
Indonesian passports currently consist of non-electronic passports and e-passports made with either laminated or polycarbonate materials, and the polycarbonate version is only available at select offices.
5. Bangladesh
Bangladesh records 10.8 document flags per 100 verifications, with readability and authenticity challenges affecting the final score. It became the first South Asian country to introduce e-passports in January 2020. However, machine-readable passports have continued to appear in official consular records, including in 2026.
The coexistence of passport formats, once again, requires KYC verification systems to know how to read and assess differences in document layout and security features in order to approve and verify genuine customers faster.
6. Thailand
Thailand ties with Bangladesh at 10.8 flags, but its readability factor has a below-average score. That makes the Thai passport another example where the document is read without trouble, but more sessions are flagged during manual authenticity checks.
Thailand’s current e-passport uses security features with a semi-transparent window, a second image of the holder, and reflective elements that animate when the document is tilted. These features help border officers, but they’re harder to capture in a single remote photo.
7. Philippines
Philippine passports have 10.4 flags per 100 verifications. The current passport design dates from 2016, and since a 2017 amendment, adult passports have been valid for 10 years. That means one passport generation has been in circulation for close to a decade.
8. Kenya
Kenya is the exception in this list: it has the highest readability score but below-average authenticity issues. Most challenges happen at the capture stage, such as blurry images, an MRZ that can’t be found, or a document that isn’t fully visible in the frame.
Unlike most countries here, Kenya no longer has two passport generations in use. It started issuing the East African Community e-passport in 2017, and the old dark blue passport was phased out after November 30, 2022. With one format in circulation, the high readability score likely has more to do with how passports are captured, such as the document not being fully in frame, than with the passport design itself.
9. Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has 9.9 flags per 100 verifications and, like Kenya, more readability issues than authenticity issues. When e-passports launched in December 2021, the rules said old passports would no longer be valid after 2023.
However, the Home Affairs ministry had earlier said they would stay valid until expiry. Additionally, applications for the old passports from 2019 were still being processed in 2022, and those passports were promised the full 10-year validity. That means older and newer formats are both in use for years.
10. Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ties with Zimbabwe at 9.9 flags, about 40% above the global average, which places the Dominican Republic among the hardest passports to verify in our research. In general, the country has one of the newest e-passport countries on the list.
The first electronic passport was issued to the president in January 2026, after more than a decade of delays. Rollout for citizens abroad is planned from August to November. Since existing passports stay valid until they expire, most Dominican users in this data are still verified with the older non-chip passport.
Factors that Impact the KYC Approval Rate
The operating industry, concrete process and elements that go into an identity verification flow, as well as regulatory requirements and user behavior can impact the approval rate, either minimizing it or making it higher.
IDV approval rate mainly depends on:
- The company’s risk appetite and the strictness of the ID verification process, which can lead to more denied sessions.
- The accepted document types, as some passports or IDs are easier to read for the KYC systems, while rare/niche documents are harder.
- Errors on the user’s side, either intentional or not, where the passport doesn’t fit into the frame, the selfie image is poor quality, or the session was abandoned.
- Other fraud prevention solutions or custom rules that run in the background, like internal blocklists and detection of known fraudsters or banned users.
In iGaming and gambling, the number is typically even lower because fraudulent attempts to forge or bypass KYC are more common, including other behavioral elements that are not accepted, such as creating multiple accounts and using duplicates for bonus abuse.
What is the Difference Between a Machine-Readable Passport and a Biometric Passport?
A machine-readable passport is a type of passport that has an MRZ, allowing scanners and KYC systems to read this data printed and encrypted on the passport. In the meantime, a biometric passport has an embedded chip that stores biometric information through a digital facial image while also having an MRZ on top. It’s also known as an e-passport because it’s a convenient method used for traveling or in cases where you need to pass through e-gates.
For example, since 2006, the EU has issued only biometric passports. Most MRZ-based passports are older passport generations that come from countries outside of the EU. Emergency passports also fit into this category.
-> Our research found that Bulgaria has a lower automated KYC approval rate (82%) compared to other countries that use a similar passport format, such as Germany (93%) or Lithuania (97%), which also have EU-standard biometric passports. That’s because of the inconsistencies that sometimes come from Cyrillic and Latin characters. Like with keywords in adverse media, if the user enters their name Aleksandar, the system can read the name as Alexander or show false positives.
Related: What is an NFC Tag?
How are KYC Approvals Calculated?
The IDV approval rate includes multiple elements that you need to assess, asking questions like:
-> Is the document valid?
-> Do the passport details match?
-> Does the selfie match?
-> Is the person present?
-> Are there any signs of fraud? (for example, multi-accounting or a suspicious IP)
The KYC session can then be either approved or denied (alternatively, reviewed manually). The approval rate essentially shows how many completed verifications are approved. Divide the total number of approved verifications by the number of completed verifications, multiplying the result by 100. For example, if 850 out of 1,000 completed verifications are approved, the approval rate is 85%.
Most firms want high approval rates, which is only natural, because you want genuine users passing their KYC session on the first try, without any hassle. However, there should be a balance in the ultimate “fraud vs. friction” dilemma. Lighter checks aren’t always the option if you let bad actors access your services. In other words, you can juggle with loose fraud prevention methods and risk non-compliance with KYC requirements.
Why Some Passports Have Higher Approval Rates
There are universal factors that explain why certain passports tend to have a higher KYC approval rate. For instance:
- Consistent layouts and an ICAO-compliant design
- Readable MRZs and the NFC chip for biometric passports
- Clear document data, including durable material, like a polycarbonate page
- Good image quality without glare (less reflective laminate helps)
- Latin characters and local script that reduce transliteration mismatches
The passport format and the captured data need to be easily authenticated and matched. For that, naturally, good KYC software is needed that is able to run the security assessment and validity checks properly and efficiently, without disrupting the end-user experience.
How to Improve Identity Verification With iDenfy
Our research shows that the approach of a combined KYC method and using automations + manual reviews is beneficial, especially when dealing with more niche and non-standard documents that professional analysts are trained to verify accurately. They can change the final result, onboarding genuine users faster, all in real time, 24/7, without the risk of having a backlog.
This document-level performance is the main point in KYC conversion, not just improving pass rates. A converted user at the initial registration stage means they are happy with the platform and will be more likely to spend their time and funds on services that can be trusted with a good U/X. For that, we have multiple KYC solutions to choose from, including document-based verification and non-doc-based checks using eIDs or facial biometrics only for age estimation.
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