Before you set out on your travels, register with iProov.me to expedite your journey with an effortless, secure remote verification of your identity.
This links your passport, your face, and your ticket together. Doing so ensures that on the day of travel you can simply show up at the Eurostar St. Pancras International station and walk through the designated SmartCheck biometric corridor to confirm your identity.
No more queues or ticket checks, and you can enjoy this quick, seamless, ticketless experience. You’ll only need to present your passport once – to the French border police. To take advantage of the expedited travel experience, you must complete this identity verification at least one day before your scheduled travel. Then you can go about your day and enjoy your trip!
To get started, you just need to complete a one-time identity verification to create a trusted, reusable digital travel credential. This includes a scan of your passport and a selfie style image captured via your mobile device. Then each time you travel with Eurostar from St. Pancras International, you’ll only need to add your ticket for travel, which will be linked to your digital travel credential held within the iProov.me app.
iProov.me is an opt-in, consent-based biometric face authentication app, which puts you in control of your data and assures your privacy. iProov.me uses the latest encryption techniques and pseudonymizes data, capturing only the necessary information to verify your identity. This ensures you can then be granted the correct access to travel at Eurostar St. Pancras International.
If you cannot find an answer to your question in the FAQ below, please contact support@iproov.me.
Please find answers below to the most common questions asked.
You may be unable to find, download or install the app from the App Store or Google Play if your device does not meet the following minimum system requirements:
iOS
Android
In addition, the app is not available to you if your App Store/Google Play region is set to any of the following countries:
The passport scan is broken down into 2 steps:
Optical
The app first performs optical image capture, using your smartphone’s camera to capture an image of the details page of your passport.
From this image, we then use OCR (optical character recognition) to extract the MRZ (machine readable zone) data of the passport.
The MRZ is shown in the red box below:
Typical reasons why the optical capture step may fail:
NFC
After the optical step completes successfully, the app then uses the NFC (near field communication) capabilities of your smartphone to wirelessly read the NFC chip inside your biometric passport.
In order to complete this step, you require a biometric passport which has an NFC chip. As of 2023, almost all countries issue biometric passports. You can identify whether your passport has the necessary chip by checking for this symbol on the front cover:
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The UK, EU and US introduced biometric passports in 2006, so these days, all valid passports from these countries (with the exception of certain emergency passports, etc) should be biometrics-capable.
You also require a smartphone with NFC capabilities. All supported iPhones have the required NFC reading capability, and almost all Android phones do as well.
In order to scan the NFC chip, when prompted, you should hold the back of your phone directly flat against your (closed) passport (any orientation of your passport is fine).
You may need to move the passport up or down until your smartphone finds the chip and begins reading it. Once it starts reading, do not move your phone or the passport until the scan process completes.
Typical reasons why the NFC capture step may fail:
Your forgotten passcode can’t be recovered. You will need to reset the app which will remove all your tickets and personal information from the app, and you can then re-register as a new user and re-add your tickets.
Simply select “Forgotten your passcode?” from the passcode screen and follow the prompt to reset the app.
It is currently not possible to change your passcode. This will be added in a future version of the app.
If you believe your passcode has been compromised, you should reset the app. Simply, tap on the cog icon at the top right and then “Delete my account. Resetting the app will clear all your personal information and also allow you to re-register with a new passcode.
You should choose a passcode that only you know, and not something easily guessed, such as your date of birth. At no time should you share this code with a third party.
Your iProov.me account can’t be backed-up or migrated from one device to another. Please re-register on your new device and scan your ticket(s) again.
Please remember to securely erase your old device before parting ways with it. How to do a full delete on the iProov.me app is covered here.
You should reset the app (tap on the cog icon, then “Delete my account”) and then re-register and re-add your ticket(s).
The ability to update your passport will be added in a future version of the app.
If you have scanned a Eurostar ticket that is not your own you can delete this. Please select and delete the ticket.
If you have scanned a friend/colleague/family member’s Eurostar ticket into your iProov.me app and confirmed travel against it using your own iProov.me account, you and the affected ticket-holder should turn up at St. Pancras as usual but use the traditional check-in process rather than SmartCheck.
The Eurostar ticket barcode can be found on your booking confirmation email, and looks like this:
Other types of barcodes such as QR codes can’t be scanned by the app, so please check you are scanning a valid Eurostar barcode.
Currently, only tickets for trains which originate from London St. Pancras International can be added to the app.
These restrictions may be revised in the future with the continuing roll-out of SmartCheck.
This is a known issue due to the Eurostar barcode ticket format, and we’re working on a solution. If you have scanned a ticket dated before today, it will show as the following year but it will NOT be valid for travel.
To avoid encountering this issue, you should avoid scanning old tickets into the app.
If you encounter issues with other future-dated tickets showing the incorrect year, please contact support@iproov.me.
When you re-add your ticket, it will show as if you have not yet confirmed travel, even if you have. In this situation, you don’t need to do anything and can still turn up at St. Pancras International station and use the SmartCheck lane.
If you confirm travel again against the same ticket, then it’ll simply overwrite the old ticket with the same one again and you can go to St Pancras and use the SmartCheck lane.
If someone else adds your ticket to their own iProov.me account, but has not yet confirmed their travel, you should ask them to simply remove the ticket from their account. You can add the ticket to your account, and then confirm your travel.
No information is sent to Eurostar until travel is confirmed, so even if they don’t delete the ticket, you can still add it to your account and confirm travel. However, if someone else has confirmed travel using their face against your ticket, you will need to turn up as St. Pancras as usual but use the traditional check-in process rather than SmartCheck (see: “I have accidentally confirmed travel using my iProov.me account against someone else’s Eurostar ticket. What should I do?”)
Each individual that is travelling will need the iProov.me app installed on their own smartphone.
The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
The identity verification process can be completed in a matter of minutes at the station. However, we’d recommend downloading the app and completing the process at least one day before your scheduled travel on each individual smartphone – at a time when you have a good internet connection. This ensures you are completely prepared for your journey prior to travel.
You can see full details of this in our privacy policy.
After you have successfully completed the initial onboarding journey, data is deleted from iProov’s systems and is stored on your device only in line with the privacy policy.
If you choose to confirm your travel or one or more Eurostar tickets, your personal data and ticket information will be held temporarily by iProov and Eurostar for the purpose of facilitating your contactless travel.
Data can only be shared the day before travel, and all data is deleted within 48 hours of the train departing. In practice this means that any data you have shared will be automatically deleted within 48 hours.
You can delete all iProov/Eurostar data from your device at any time by choosing to “Delete my account” by tapping on the cog icon on the home screen.