The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) is a United Nations Specialized Agency based in Montreal that is tasked with governing the standards of international air navigation, transport, and planning. It is the sole international organization with legal authority to implement — and revise — standards on infrastructure, navigation technology, flight inspections, and cross-border procedures for international flights. Its members are the signatories to the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, currently totaling 193 — all United Nations member states with the exception of Liechtenstein.
ICAO provides specifications in relation to machine readable travel documents (MRTD or eMRTD), including passports, ePassports, border crossing cards, travel documents and visas.
