Foreign document and ID card recognition

Q: Which foreign documents does NeuroVision recognise?

Passports and travel passports, national ID cards, residence permits, temporary residence permits and driving licences — 16 000+ document types from 195+ countries and territories. The full list by country is published in the documentation.

Q: How is an ID card recognised?

From both sides: the front — photo and data, the back — address, personal number and the MRZ, if there is one. A second capture step is set in the Web SDK, and the service combines the data of both sides in one response.

Q: Can a residence permit be recognised?

Yes. The service recognises residence permits and temporary residence permits of other states, as well as foreigners' documents issued in Russia — according to the list in the documentation. The set of fields depends on the specimen of the document.

Q: Does the service translate a foreign passport into Russian?

No. The service extracts the data as it is printed and returns the name in Latin letters from the MRZ. Notarised translation and the official Russian spelling of the full name are a separate service of a translator and a notary.

Q: Where can I get a foreigner's full name in Russian for a questionnaire?

From the notarised translation of the passport or from documents issued in Russia. Automatic transliteration from Latin letters may differ from the official translation, so for matching and screening against lists use the Latin letters from the MRZ, and for a contract — the spelling from the translation.

Q: Do I need to specify the country of the document before recognition?

No. The model detects the country, type and side of the document on its own. A type needs to be specified in the flow only if several documents of different types look almost the same.

Q: What should I do if the document of the country I need is not on the list?

Write to support. The team will assess whether the model can be trained on this document and will release an update; adding a new type takes time to collect data and retrain.

Q: Is a document without an MRZ recognised too?

Yes. If there is no machine-readable zone — on old forms or in some documents — the fields are read from the visual zone. There are no MRZ check digits in this case.

Q: Why does foreign document recognition sometimes fail?

Most often because of the photo: glare on the plastic of the card, a cropped MRZ, a document that is too small in the frame. The service returns an error with a prompt — for example, to retake the photo without glare — and the Web SDK helps to capture the document correctly the first time.

Q: Which checks should be run for a foreign client?

After recognition — the register of controlled persons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (5 ₽) and compliance screening against PEP, sanctions lists and adverse media (36 ₽). By full name and date of birth, Russian lists are also available: the Rosfinmonitoring list, the Ministry of Internal Affairs wanted list, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Bailiff Service.

Foreign document recognition without manual entry: NeuroVision detects the country and type of the document on its own, extracts fields from a passport, ID card, residence permit or driving licence, reads the MRZ and returns the name in Latin letters. 16 000+ document types from 195+ countries and territories — in one API.

List of documents Try it for free

Foreign document recognition: a fictitious passport and ID card with the data zones and the MRZ highlighted

Recognition result Foreign national's passport · specimen

Country and type detected automatically
Surname and given name extracted SÖLEN KIRA
Latin name from the MRZ extracted SOELEN KIRA
Valid until checked valid
Result checked MRZ check digits match

MRZ and the name in Latin letters — in one API response
Passports, ID cards, residence permits and driving licences
16,000+ document types from 195+ countries and territories

Data is stored in Russia Russian Software Registry No. 19972 Compliance with 152-FZ

Which foreign documents NeuroVision recognises

The model detects the country, type and side of the document on its own, so the client does not have to pick them from a list. 16 000+ document types from 195+ countries and territories are supported — including old and new specimens of the forms, service and diplomatic variants.

Passports and travel passports

Ordinary and biometric passports, service and diplomatic, children's and temporary — the page with the photo and the MRZ and, for some countries, additional pages.
- Passport
- ePassport
- MRZ TD3
National ID cards

ID card recognition from both sides: the front — photo and data, the back — address, personal number and the MRZ, if there is one. Cards of the old and the new specimen.
- Front
- Back
- MRZ TD1
Residence permits and temporary residence permits

Recognition of residence permits and temporary residence permits issued by other states, as well as documents of foreigners in Russia: a residence permit, a temporary residence permit (RVP), a refugee passport and a stateless person's document.
- Residence permit
- Temporary residence permit
- Refugee
- Stateless
Driving licences

Licences of other countries, including national licences of individual states and provinces, and international driving permits. Both sides of the card.
- Licence
- International permit
Documents in different alphabets

Cyrillic, Latin, Arabic script and ideographs. Fields are returned as printed, and the name in Latin letters — from the machine-readable zone.

Three spellings of a name
The document you need is not on the list

The list is updated regularly. If the document of your country is missing, the team will assess whether the model can be trained on it and an update released.

The full list of documents

Which countries' documents we recognise: examples from the list

Uzbekistan PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Tajikistan PassportID cardLicence
Kyrgyzstan PassportID cardLicence
Kazakhstan PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Turkmenistan PassportResidence permitLicence
Armenia PassportID cardLicence
Azerbaijan PassportID cardTemporary residence permitLicence
Georgia PassportID cardLicence

Belarus PassportID cardresidence permitLicence
Moldova PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Serbia PassportID cardTemporary residence permitLicence

China PassportID cardforeigner's ID cardLicence
India PassportID cardLicence
Vietnam PassportID cardLicence
Mongolia PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Thailand, Indonesia PassportID cardLicence

Turkey PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
UAE Passportresident ID cardLicence
Iran PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Egypt PassportID cardLicence

Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland PassportID cardResidence permitLicence
Canada, Mexico, Brazil PassportID cardprovincial and state driving licences

Recognising documents of different countries is not only about passports. Below are the countries that clients of Russian companies come from most often, and the types of their documents from the NeuroVision list. The full list for 195+ countries and territories is in the documentation.
Full list of documents by country

What data we extract from a foreign document

Data is extracted from an identity document field by field: for each field the service returns the value and the model's confidence level. The set of fields depends on the country and the type of the document — for example, many documents have no patronymic or address.

Foreign national's passport

a passport or travel passport of another country; the page with the photo and the MRZ

Enable
Personal data
- Surname and given name (as printed)
- Surname and given name in Latin letters from the MRZ
- Sex and date of birth
- Place of birth — if it is on the form
- Citizenship (country code)
- Holder's photo (crop)
Document details
- Passport number
- Document type
- Issuing country
- Date of issue
- Valid until
- Issuing authority — if there is one
- Machine-readable zone (MRZ)
ID card

a national identity card; front and back sides

Enable
Personal data
- Surname and given name
- Latin letters from the MRZ — if there is an MRZ
- Sex and date of birth
- Citizenship
- Personal (identification) number — if there is one
- Address — if it is indicated on the card
- Holder's photo (crop)
Document details
- Card number
- Issuing country
- Date of issue
- Valid until
- TD1 format MRZ — if there is one
Residence permit and temporary residence permit

a residence permit or a temporary residence permit — of a foreign state or issued in Russia

Enable
Personal data
- Surname and given name
- Latin letters — if there are any
- Sex and date of birth
- Citizenship
- Holder's photo (crop)
Document details
- Document number
- Issuing authority
- Date of issue
- Valid until
- Grounds or category — if indicated
- MRZ — if there is one

How foreign document recognition works

OCR of foreign documents works the same way as for a Russian passport: the client takes a photo, and in one request the system returns the fields, the MRZ and the statuses of the checks. A person gets involved only if the model is unsure about some field. How to connect: REST API and Web SDK.

Step 1

The client photographs the document

The Web SDK shows a frame and prompts: remove the glare, move closer, turn the card over. Photos from a phone, scans and webcam frames in JPEG or PNG are suitable.

Capturing a foreign ID card in the Web SDK: a prompt to photograph the back

Step 2

We detect the country, type and side

The model classifies the document among 16 000+ types from 195+ countries and territories: a passport or an ID card, which specimen of the form, the front or the back. There is no need to choose the country manually.

Automatic detection of the country, type and side of a foreign document

Step 3

We read the fields in the language of the document

Multilingual document recognition: each field is read with account of the alphabet and the font — Cyrillic, Latin, Arabic script, ideographs. Dates and numbers are brought to a single format.

Recognition of the fields of a foreign document with the confidence level

Step 4

We read the MRZ and check the digits

We read the machine-readable zone, recalculate the check digits and check the validity period and traces of editing. The name in Latin letters is taken from the MRZ.

Reading the MRZ of a foreign passport: the name in Latin letters and the check digits

Step 5

We return the result in JSON

The document type with the country code, fields with confidence, the name in Latin letters, the photo crop and the statuses of the checks. The data goes straight into the questionnaire, the CRM or the banking system.

The result of recognising a foreign document in JSON

Photo quality and recognition limits

Format and size

JPEG or PNG. The document must take up enough of the frame: a document that is too small is rejected by the service with an error and the user is asked to retake the photo. HEIC, WEBP and PDF are not accepted.
The whole document, without glare

The whole document, including the MRZ, is in the frame. Plastic ID cards and residence permits give glare under a lamp: shoot without flash, at an angle to the light. If the MRZ lines are not fully visible or the check digits do not match, an error is returned bad mrz checksum with a prompt to retake the photo.
Both sides of the card

For an ID card, a residence permit and a licence, part of the data and the MRZ are on the back. A second step is set in the verification flow: first the front, then the back.
Copies and printouts

By default the service is designed for a photo of the original: a scan, photocopy or printout may get an anti-fraud flag. If documents arrive as scans in your process, these checks are switched off in the flow.

Why users retake photos of documents · Recognition errors and prompts.

MRZ of foreign documents: passport, ID card, residence permit

The machine-readable zone is built the same way in all countries that follow ICAO Doc 9303, so MRZ recognition works even where the visual zone is printed in an unfamiliar alphabet. The format depends on the size of the document: a passport has two lines of 44 characters, an ID card — three lines of 30, some residence permits and other documents — two lines of 36. The name in the MRZ is written in Latin letters only, without diacritics, and the surname is separated from the given name by two characters “<<”. The service reads the MRZ and recalculates the check digits; documents without an MRZ are recognised from the visual zone. How to recalculate the check digits — in the article on MRZ verification.

TD3 passport MRZ: two lines of 44 characters, the name in Latin letters

TD1 ID card MRZ: three lines of 30 characters

TD2 document MRZ: two lines of 36 characters

Three spellings of a name: visual zone, MRZ and questionnaire

For matching — Latin letters from the MRZ

For matching and screening against lists, use the Latin letters from the MRZ, and for a contract — the spelling from the translation

01
As printed in the document

The visual zone shows the name in the language of the country: in Cyrillic, in Latin letters with diacritics, in Arabic script or in ideographs. The service returns the field as it is printed.
02
Latin name from the MRZ

In the machine-readable zone the name is written in Latin letters only, under the ICAO rules: letters with diacritics and national alphabets are rendered with Latin letters. This spelling is convenient for searching international lists and for matching against other documents.
03
In Russian — for the questionnaire and the contract

The Russian spelling of a foreigner's full name is taken from the notarised translation of the passport or from documents issued in Russia. The service does not invent it: automatic transliteration from Latin letters may differ from the official translation.
04
Not everyone has a patronymic

Many countries have no patronymics, and in some documents the surname and the given name are written in one line. Federal Law 115-FZ requires the patronymic to be recorded “unless otherwise follows from the law or national custom” — the field will stay empty, and that is normal.

3 spellings of a name in one document
195+ countries and territories
1 request: fields, MRZ and checks

Recognition or notarised translation: what is for what

Manual entry from the document

What you get. Data that an employee retyped.

An unfamiliar alphabet. The employee will not be able to read it.

Russian spelling of the full name. At the employee's discretion.

Data verification. By eye.

Where it is accepted. In the company's internal systems.
NeuroVision recognition

What you get. Document fields in JSON, the name in Latin letters from the MRZ, statuses of the checks.

An unfamiliar alphabet. Reads the fields and the MRZ.

Russian spelling of the full name. Does not produce it: returns it as printed and in Latin letters.

Data verification. MRZ check digits, validity period, traces of editing.

Where it is accepted. In the company's internal systems: questionnaire, CRM, banking system.
Notarised translation

What you get. The text of the document in Russian with the notary's certification.

An unfamiliar alphabet. The translator translates everything.

Russian spelling of the full name. Yes, the official one.

Data verification. Does not verify the authenticity of the document.

Where it is accepted. In government bodies and wherever the law requires a translation.

Notarised translation is not our area. If your process requires a translation of a foreigner's passport, recognition will help at the step before it: it will fill in the questionnaire, check the document and show whom to check more carefully. The Russian spelling of the full name from the translation is then added to the client's record.

Which checks to run for a foreign client

The register of controlled persons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — foreigners who have no legal grounds to be in Russia Full namedate of birthforeigner's document and date of issue5 ₽

Compliance screening: politically exposed persons, sanctions lists, regulators' measures, adverse media surname and given namedate of birthcountrysex36 ₽
International sanctions lists: OFAC, EU, United Kingdom, UN surname and given namedate of birth improves accuracy

Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists Full name
Wanted-persons lists of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Bailiffs Service Full namedate of birth

Image anti-fraud: editing, screen capture, printout in the same request as recognition
MRZ: check digits isMRZValid

A recognised document is the basis for database checks. For a foreign citizen some checks based on a Russian passport are unavailable, but there are checks of their own: the register of controlled persons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and international compliance screening. The data for them is taken from the recognised document — the client does not need to enter anything. The checks are started by a separate call, and the result is requested by the launch identifier.
Checks that need a Russian passport or a taxpayer number (INN) — validity of a Russian passport, obtaining an INN, arbitration cases, self-employed status — are unavailable for a foreigner without them. Prices and contents — in the catalogue of checks. Requirements for checking non-residents — in the article “KYC for international clients and non-residents in 2025”, screening against the OFAC, EU and UK lists — in the article “AML for international onboarding”.

Who needs recognition of foreigners' documents

Anywhere clients or employees come with documents of other countries and the data is currently retyped by hand — with mistakes in Latin letters and dates. Brokers and investment platforms — checking non-resident clients.

Employers and HR services
- A foreign employee's passport and residence permit — into the HR system without retyping
- The name in Latin letters from the MRZ and the spelling from the translation — in one record
- Check against the register of controlled persons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs before hiring
Fintech and money transfers
- Onboarding of clients with foreign documents in the app
- Data of the document confirming the right of stay — into the questionnaire under Federal Law 115-FZ
- Compliance screening before the first transfer Learn more
Banks
- Opening an account for a foreigner in a branch and online
- Recognition of residence permits, temporary residence permits and ID cards of the EAEU countries Learn more
Hotels and tourism
- Registering foreign guests by passport without manual entry
- Data for the arrival notification — from the recognised document
Marketplaces with foreign sellers
- Checking a foreign seller's document at onboarding
- ID cards and passports of the EAEU and Asian countries Learn more
Education
- Documents of foreign students and applicants — into the admissions system
- Passport, residence permit, temporary residence permit — without retyping Latin letters

Personal data of foreigners: storage in Russia and Federal Law 152-FZ

Processing in Russia

The NeuroVision cloud operates in Russia

The NeuroVision cloud runs in data centres on the territory of the Russian Federation. Document images and recognised data are not sent to servers abroad.

Deployment inside your perimeter

Images do not leave your infrastructure

The service is deployed on your servers by NeuroVision specialists: document images stay within your perimeter.

Cross-border transfer is a separate decision

Recognition in Russia does not create it

If you transfer clients' data abroad — for example, to a parent company — you must notify Roskomnadzor in advance under Art. 12 of Federal Law 152-FZ. Recognition in Russia does not create such a transfer.

Russian citizens and foreigners

Localisation requirements and general rules

The requirement to keep data in databases on the territory of Russia in Part 5 of Art. 18 of Federal Law 152-FZ is worded for Russian citizens. For foreigners, the general rules of processing and cross-border transfer apply.

Retention period and destruction

The period is set in the flow

The retention period of session data is set in the flow settings, and the data can be destroyed at any moment with the method kyc/session/erase.

152‑FZ

a Russian developer, software in the registry, No. 19972

API response for a foreign national's passport

The same method as for a Russian passport: POST /v1/kyc/process. The response contains the document type with the country code, fields with the model's confidence and the statuses of the checks, including the MRZ. Description of the method in the API documentation.

Request

The document image goes in the images field (up to 10 images, JPEG or PNG), the token — in the token header. There is no need to specify the type and country of the document.
Document and country

Field docName contains the country code and the specimen of the form — for example, “UTO — Passport (2020)”, which is convenient for routing a request by flow. For the back of a card a separate result arrives with its own docName.
Fields with confidence

Inocr.fields— the name of the field (title, for example Surname or Document number), the value and the model's confidence level conf. Field names depend on the country and the type of the document; the list contains only those that are on the form.
Document checks

In checks → fraud — the statuses of the image checks: isMRZValid (MRZ check digits), isEdited, isDisplay, isPrinted. If the image is unsuitable, an error arrives with a prompt to retake it.

How much foreign document recognition costs

01
From 16 ₽ per check — document recognition and anti-fraud in the “Document” package
02
10 ₽ — an additional document in the same session: ID card, residence permit, licence
03
5 ₽ — register of controlled persons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 36 ₽ — compliance screening

Connection: cloud, Web SDK or your perimeter

Foreigners' documents are recognised by the same integration as Russian ones: no separate method or separate contract is needed.

Web SDK

A ready-made capture screen with a frame and prompts for a website and a mobile browser; in a mobile app it opens in a WebView. The prompts help to capture both sides of an ID card and the MRZ without glare. Web SDK

REST API

The method POST /v1/kyc/process: document images in, type, fields and checks out. The flow step number can be passed for each image. API documentation

Fields in JSON
Confidence for every field
Both sides of the card
Test flow and documentation

Terms

1 month of test access, a manager, ticket support, payment per document.

Glossary: MRZ, VIZ, ICAO and foreigners' documents

Short definitions of the terms from the API response and from the requirements for working with foreigners' documents.

MRZ: The machine-readable zone — the lines at the bottom of the photo page or on the back of a card. They contain, in Latin letters, the document type, the country, the number, the name, the dates and the check digits.; Machine-readable zone
Visual inspection zone (VIZ): The part of the document printed for a human: the name, dates and number — in the language of the issuing country, sometimes in two alphabets.; Visual inspection zone
ICAO Doc 9303: The standard of the International Civil Aviation Organization for machine-readable documents: MRZ formats, country codes and rules for writing names in Latin letters.; ICAO
TD1, TD2, TD3: Document formats and their MRZ: TD1 — a bank-card-sized card, three lines of 30 characters; TD2 — two lines of 36; TD3 — a passport, two lines of 44.
Country code: Three Latin letters in the MRZ and in the document type from the API response. ICAO specimens use the fictitious code UTO.; State code
Check digit: A digit calculated from the other MRZ characters. It catches reading errors and crude edits, but does not prove the authenticity of the document. More about the MRZ.; Check digit
Transliteration: Writing a name in the letters of another alphabet. In the MRZ — by the ICAO rules, in Russian documents and translations — by their own rules, so the spellings may not match.; Transliteration
ID card: An identity document in the form of a plastic card. In many countries it replaces the internal passport, often with an MRZ on the back.; ID card
Residence permit and temporary residence permit: A residence permit and a temporary residence permit — documents confirming a foreigner's right to live in the country.; Residence permit
Stateless person: A person who has no citizenship of any state. Receives a separate identity document.; Stateless person
Register of controlled persons: A register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, kept since February 2025: foreigners who have no legal grounds to be in Russia.

Why NeuroVision is trusted with foreigners' documents

Foreigners' document recognition is part of the client verification platform: the same models, infrastructure and security requirements.

NeuroVision — an expert in computer vision and AI

AI-OCR works as part of customer verification (KYC), trusted by the largest companies in fintech, e-commerce and transport services.

We develop identification algorithms that automate checks, detect fraud and help meet regulatory requirements.

One integration for all countries

16 000+ document types from 195+ countries and territories — the same API as for a Russian passport.

Photo Fields JSON

MRZ and Latin letters — straight away

The name in Latin letters and the MRZ check digits — in one response, without a second service.

Data stays in Russia

Cloud in Russia or installation in your perimeter; processing under Federal Law 152-FZ.

A Russian developer

Skolkovo resident, software in the Russian Software Registry (No. 19972), Rospatent certificate No. 2023661508.

Test the recognition on your clients' documents

Tell us which countries your clients and employees come from — we will check whether their documents are on the list and give you test access to the API and Web SDK for 1 month.

The company is included in the register of IT companies and the register of personal data operators of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development.

Address: Moscow, Presnenskaya Embankment 12 — Moscow City business centre, Federation Tower. Nearest metro stations: Delovoy Tsentr and Mezhdunarodnaya.

Frequently asked questions about foreign document recognition

Answers about document types, MRZ, checks, data storage and connection