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Why can't my passport scan be processed for the DTV application?

Aug 6, 2025
3 days ago
Hi everyone,

Has anyone encountered this message when applying for the DTV after uploading their passport scan?

“Biodata page of travel document – We are unable to retrieve data from the MRZ. Please enter your travel document’s biographic information manually.”

Does this mean my passport scan isn’t clear enough? I used a scanner, and it looks clear to me and has high definition even after zooming in so I wonder why it couldn’t read the information from it 🙏🏻
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TLDR : Answer Summary
Users are experiencing issues with the DTV application where their passport scans are not being accepted. The message indicates that the system cannot read the biographic information from the machine-readable zone (MRZ) of the passport. Suggestions from other users include using a photo instead of a scanned image, trying an iPhone's notes app for scanning, and ensuring the MRZ is clearly visible. A past experience highlights that photos can sometimes work better than scans for this process.
DTV VISA RESOURCES / SERVICES
A. ************
The site didn't like the scan I took of my biodata page. I remebered I had a photo of it that I took when I applied for my Vietnam visa and the site liked that one. I thought the scan would be better, but apparently not.
Wannikea *********
Take and upload a picture, don't scan
DTV_Be*******
If you have the iPhone you can scan via the notes app
Henrik *****
It is the machine readable text field at the bottom of the picture page of the passport, that isn’t clear enough.