Passport scanning is highly beneficial for businesses frequently needing to save copies of important documents. These businesses usually include travel and tour agencies, overseas recruitment agencies, human resource centers, and others.
If you’re considering getting or using a passport scanner for your business or organization, then this article is especially written for you. Specifically, this article talks about the different kinds of passport scanners, how to use a passport scanner, and the benefits of passport scanning.
What Is A Passport Scanner Used For?
Digital copies are verified and can be sent electronically over a long distance. Most organizations use passport scanners to send copies of documents to parties that requested, and which may either be far away from or near them.
In most cases, delivering the documents physically may be very difficult or impossible. This is where a passport scanner comes in handy. Besides, essential documents, like passports, have to be scanned to verify their authenticity.
As a business owner, you’d surely enjoy a quick and smooth check-in process, security screening, or the process of bringing in new employees or clients by using a passport scanner.
Here are the six main areas that are important for businesses or professionals requiring the use of passport scanners:
- Verification: Border control officials, hotels, banks, insurance companies, and car rental companies usually require verification documents, such as passports, to ensure the legitimacy of transactions of people entering their premises.
- Identification: Passports are considered a form of identification or ID, presented in various businesses, agencies, and organizations.
- Supporting Documentation: Schools, post offices, and telecommunication companies usually require supporting documents, such as passports, to ascertain they’re dealing with a legal foreign temporary or permanent resident of the place.
- Legal Compliance: Law enforcement agencies usually look for passports, especially among non-residents of the local area, ensuring they know the identities of foreign people working in the country.
- Employment: Club houses, casinos, festivals, and sports events usually involve foreign nationals operating and temporarily residing in the country. One of the employment documents required is a passport.
- Education: A passport can show if a person is a tourist or a foreign student studying in the country. Schools and universities require foreign and exchange students to present their passports.
What Are The Different Kinds Of Passport Scanners?
There are majorly two categories of passport scanners: traditional desktop scanners and portable scanners. Each one has its pros and cons, and it’s important to know what you need before making a purchase.
A traditional scanner is just a large flatbed scanner that sits on your desk. One huge advantage of traditional scanners is that they’re very easy to use, have easily adjustable head and bottom trays, and you can get a good model for around USD$80.
Most models will allow you to enter data, like your name, date of birth, country or region, and where you want to go within the area. They don’t have all the fancy features that newer models do, but they’re still fairly efficient.
On the other hand, portable passport scanners are user-friendly, perfect for scan-and-go passport copying. With portable passport scanners, you can take true-color images taken with UV and IR light. Expect high resolution, as well as fast image-taking and processing.
You’ll be confident with the results because a good brand of portable passport scanner can detect even the smallest security marks and patterns clearly. Portable ID scanners have a high-level of forgery identification for every document, such as passports.
Tips For Scanning
- Make sure to scan your passport, or any other document, against a dark and flat surface. Placing it against a flat surface is quite important to avoid creases or visible folds, which can affect the whole look of your scanned document.
- It’s essential that you capture every detail on the form, from one corner to the next, all through the four corners. No signature, digit, information, or seal should be cut out from the scan as you’ll never know which information they’re interested in about your passport. It also helps prove the authenticity of the document you’re scanning.
- Ensure that every word, number, and information on the scanned passport is readable and clear for anyone to see, even up to the smallest prints. This is to ensure that no detail is lost. Also, there should be no fading out or blurriness of texts.
- The resolution of images on a scanner is measured in ‘dots per inch (dpi).’ Black and white documents are generally scanned at 300dpi. However, it’s advisable to scan your passport at 600dpi because of the colored images.
Benefits Of Passport Scanners
Here are the following benefits of using passport scanners:
1. Passport scanning is faster than manual data entry: This is the primary benefit of passport scanning over the manual method of data entry. It helps to process data within a short duration. Passport scanning is said to be 20 times faster than manual methods.
2. You can scan on the go: In recent years, one of the latest developments is the emergence of mobile scanning. This means that the scanning of your documents can now be done on smartphones. Whether you have a flight ticketing business or are screening potential employees, scanning passports and IDs is fast and easy using a portable passport scanner. There’s no need for queueing, hence, abiding with social distancing and other safety protocols, especially during this pandemic.
3. Passport scanning reproduces your original documents accurately: Manual data entry could result in many errors. Scanning, on the one hand, ensures that your information is reproduced accurately. Any mistake in data entry could lead to costly damages. This is why passport scanning is often more preferred over data entry. You can be sure of the accurate transfer of information from one source to the other.
Conclusion
The importance of a passport scanner shouldn’t be underestimated. Using this device for your business can help make your work more effective, providing an efficient means to verify and manage your business contacts and clients. Make your business processes a lot smoother than ever by employing this type of technology.