The immigration officer still has to open the e-passport, read its contents and then swipe its bar-code through an optical reader to get the bearer's file up on a screen ready to ask a few questions.

The immigration officer still has to open thee-passport, read its contents and then swipe its bar-code through an optical reader to get the bearer's file up on a screen ready to ask a few questions.

An antenna coil of a reader or writer apparatus for communicating with the IC chip is arranged on the side of an optical pickup module which faces a rotary axis of the optical disc.