Luxembourg's new passport: late, stuck at the gate, and wanted by Washington
Seven years of parliamentary questions on the Luxembourg passport: a ten-year passport that arrived years late, chips that some border gates cannot read, and a US push for Europeans' biometric data.
I haven’t run into the problem myself. My passport is still an “old” one, and as I usually travel with my daughter, I end up at a border agent’s desk anyway. But since the new ten-year passport arrived in May, I keep hearing the same story: the automated gate doesn’t open, or the ESTA application for the United States won’t accept the passport.
A passport is the most basic digital product a state makes: a chip, a chain of certificates and a database, bound into a booklet. If we can’t get that right, “digital nation” is just a slogan.
Seven years of questions
I have been asking about our passport since my first term:
- 2019: researchers presented security weaknesses in the Luxembourg biometric passport. When I asked, the ministry said it had only learned of the findings after their public conference (QP 1254).
- January 2026: the ten-year passport, promised for 2025, still had no launch date. The government pointed to the complexity of procurement and security, and added that a chip durability issue had been solved (QP 3517).
- May 2026: the new passport finally launched.
- September 2026: travellers report that the chips of some new passports aren’t read by certain automated border gates or by ESTA. I have asked the government to explain what is going wrong (QP 4708). The answer is still pending.
According to Paperjam, the first official line is that the readers abroad are the problem, not our passport. Maybe so. But a passport that doesn’t work where people actually use it is not a success, whoever is to blame. Citizens deserve to know how many passports are affected, which countries and systems are involved, and whether there is a fix, or at least clear advice, before the next holiday season.
Who gets our biometric data?
The same dossier has a second, quieter side.
The United States wants European countries to share biometric data through its “Enhanced Border Security Partnership”. In July, the government told me it had not yet received the final text and would insist on necessity, proportionality and reciprocity (QP 4507).
Visa applications for Luxembourg are handled by a private contractor, VFS Global. The government confirmed that applicants’ data may be stored in the EU, in London or in Mumbai, under contract, and that inspections have been carried out (QP 4590).
“Insisting on proportionality” is a negotiating position, not a safeguard. Before Luxembourg signs anything that opens our biometric data to another country, Parliament should see the text and have its say.
What I’m asking next
- How many holders of the new passport have been affected, in which countries, and at which systems?
- Will the government publish practical guidance for travellers until the problem is fixed?
- Will Parliament see the text of any biometric data-sharing agreement with the United States before it is signed?
Help me document it
If your new passport was refused at an e-gate or by ESTA, tell me where and when it happened. Every concrete case makes the next answer harder to dodge.