· Written and maintained by Nonimo
To watermark and redact a passport copy properly, do two things before it leaves your phone. Redact what would let someone pass themselves off as you: the signature, the two machine readable lines at the foot of the data page, and the passport number when the recipient has no use for it. Then write across the page who the copy is for, what for and the month. The tool above does both, on a photo or a scan.
The request usually comes from a letting agent, a recruitment agency, a new employer, a holiday let host or a bank checking your identity. Each gets the same page, and most need only part of it. Below: the UK passport field by field, what to write in the watermark, the right to rent and right to work checks where the original is seen anyway, and the photocard driving licence, which often goes to the same people.
And if all you want is an AI’s help reading the page, redact every field first, then ask away.
How to watermark a passport copy on your phone or computer
The whole job takes about a minute and needs nothing installed. Take a photo of the open passport or use a scan you already have: JPG, PNG, WEBP, PDF and the HEIC photos an iPhone saves all work.
- Drop in the photo. On a phone you can take the picture straight from the page instead.
- Check the starting point. Your name, the document number and your photo stay visible; everything else the tool reads starts covered, from the date of birth to the machine readable lines.
- Tap the field chips. Each chip covers or shows one field: document number, photo, date of birth, place of birth, expiry date and the rest. Tap the expiry date, for instance, if the recipient needs to see the passport is current.
- Write the watermark. It is on from the start, and its text box suggests a line of the form copy for ___ only, with the month filled in. Choose All over, repeated diagonally across the page, or Stamp, a discreet band.
- Download. PNG, JPG or PDF, with the boxes and the watermark burned into the pixels and the photo’s hidden data, EXIF and GPS, left behind.
Your document never leaves your device: it is read and redacted in your browser. The photo or PDF you drop is not uploaded, to our servers or anyone’s, so the only copy that travels is the one you choose to send. Should the passport scan already sit on your computer, the Nonimo app for Mac and Windows redacts and watermarks it there as well.
To ask an AI about the document rather than send it to a person, tap the three chips still showing, name, number and photo, so nothing personal is left: a chatbot explaining a box on a form has no use for your name. The same reasoning applies to letters and files, and the personal data to remove before an AI reads a document works through it for UK paperwork.
What to redact on a UK passport copy before you send it
The page people photograph is the data page. On the blue passports issued since 2020 it sits on the back of a stiff polycarbonate sheet at the front of the book. HM Passport Office’s guide to basic passport checks describes that page and the ones around it, and three details in it change what a careful copy looks like.
| Field | Where it is | In the copy you send |
|---|---|---|
| Surname and given names | Data page | Keep: it is what they asked for |
| Photograph | Data page | Keep if they need to match you to your face |
| Passport number | Data page, and elsewhere in the book | Keep only if they will record it |
| Date and place of birth | Data page | Cover unless they ask |
| Expiry date | Data page | Show it if they check the passport is current |
| Signature | Page 3, facing the data page | Cover |
| Two lines of letters, digits and chevrons | Foot of the data page | Cover |
Positions from HM Passport Office, Basic passport checks. The last column is our recommendation for a copy sent ahead of a formal check; the tool starts with name, number and photo showing.
Page 3 comes with the photo: your signature and a second portrait
On series C and series D passports, the holder signs in wet ink on page 3, the Official Observations page, in the area reserved for the signature. Page 3 faces the data page, so a photo of the open passport captures both. The same page carries a second colour image of you and any official observations about you.
So photograph the data page on its own, with page 3 folded back or out of the frame. A signature is the one item a recipient of a copy almost never needs, so there is little reason to send it. On series C passports the data page also has a small window repeating your portrait; when the tool recognises the page, its Photo chip treats that window as part of your photo.
The two lines at the foot repeat the whole page
The machine readable zone follows ICAO Doc 9303, the standard behind every passport a border scanner can read. It is two lines of 44 characters. The top line holds your surname and given names. The bottom line holds your passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex and expiry date, each with a check digit.
A date of birth covered above but left in the two lines is still on show: a scanner, or anyone who knows the layout, reads it straight back. Covering the lines costs a person reading the copy nothing, since everything in them is printed in plain text above, and you have already chosen which of those fields to show.
Drawing a black rectangle over the lines in a PDF editor is not the same as covering them. In a PDF a shape can sit on top of what it hides while the picture underneath stays whole, as our guide to redacting a PDF shows with a test file. A box burned into a new image does not have that problem.
The passport number: keep it only when they will write it down
On series C passports the nine digit number is printed on the inner front cover, engraved on the title page and laser perforated through the book from the title page to the rear cover. It can therefore turn up on pages you thought were blank, so check the edges of the photo as well as the data page.
Whether to show it depends on who asked. A letting agent or employer doing a formal check will record it from the original anyway. A holiday let host or a club secretary may only need your name and face. The tool leaves the number visible by default and one tap on its chip covers it.
What to write in a passport watermark
A watermark answers one question for whoever finds the copy later: was this meant for me? Three parts do that. Who the copy is for, what it is for, and the month you sent it.
Copy for the letting agent only, Mill Lane flat · October 2026
If that copy turns up attached to a credit application or a new phone contract, the line contradicts it at first glance. A watermark that says only copy, or carries your initials, tells a later reader nothing. Keep it short, too: a short line stays legible at an angle, while a full sentence turns into texture.
| Who asked | What the watermark could say |
|---|---|
| Letting agent | Copy for the letting agent only, Mill Lane flat · October 2026 |
| Recruitment agency | Copy for the agency only, warehouse role · October 2026 |
| New employer, before day one | Copy for onboarding only · October 2026 |
| Holiday let host | Copy for the host only, Cornwall booking · October 2026 |
Examples only: swap in the real recipient, purpose and month.
All over or Stamp: the two watermark styles
All over repeats your line diagonally across the whole page, through the photo and the printed details. It is the harder style to crop or edit out, and the better choice for anything going by email to someone you have not met.
Stamp puts it in a discreet band, cleaner when the copy has to stay easy to read, for example for an office that has already seen you in person. Either way the text is burned into the pixels of the download. It is not a text box laid over a picture, which comes off a slide just as easily as it went on.
Right to rent and right to work: the original is checked anyway
Two familiar UK reasons for being asked for a passport are checks the Home Office sets out in detail, and both of its guides were updated on 1 October 2026. Neither check is satisfied by a copy you email, watermarked or not.
That is good news for a covered copy. The copy you send ahead of an appointment is for convenience, and the check itself happens on the original, so there is no reason for the emailed version to carry your signature or the machine readable lines.
Right to rent, in England
The landlord’s guide to right to rent checks says landlords and their agents must have the original documents in their physical possession, check them in the presence of the holder, in person or by live video call, and must not rely on a faxed, scanned or copied version. For a British or Irish passport, a registered digital verification service provider can carry out the check instead, for passports up to 6 months past their expiry date.
The landlord then makes their own copy from the original, including any page with your signature, date of birth and photograph, and keeps it for at least one year after the tenancy ends. The scheme applies in England. Agencies that take a passport with every let will find their side of it on our page for estate and letting agents.
Right to work: the employer copies the original
The employer’s guide to right to work checks sets the same pattern. Employers must be in physical possession of the original, check it in the presence of the holder, in person or by live video link, and may not rely on video alone or on a screenshot or scanned copy. Their own copy of the relevant pages is kept for the duration of the employment and for two years afterwards.
As with renting, a registered digital verification provider can check a British or Irish passport without you handing the book over. A new starter’s details then move on to payroll, often at an outside bureau or accountant, and our page for accountants and bookkeepers starts with the payroll clerk asking an AI about a starter’s tax code.
So what is the emailed copy for?
The scan a letting agent asks for before a viewing, the copy a recruitment agency wants alongside your CV, the photo an employer requests before the right to work appointment: all of these come before the check. They travel by email, sit in inboxes and get forwarded. That is the copy to cover and watermark.
UK photocard driving licence: what to redact and watermark
The photocard licence often goes to the same people, sometimes as proof of address. DVLA’s leaflet INS57P, which comes with the licence, tells holders to protect themselves against identity theft and not to post images of the licence online.
The driver number carries your date of birth
The field to think about is the driver number. INS57P explains how it is built: the first five letters of your surname, your date of birth with the month adjusted for women, your first two initials, then check characters. What a UK driver number gives away is worked through with DVLA’s own sample, and the same leaflet asks you to quote the number, or your name and date of birth, whenever you contact DVLA about the licence.
A date of birth covered on the card but left in the driver number is still on show. Show the number only to someone who will record it, such as a hire company or an employer checking that you can drive for work.
| Field on the licence | In the copy you send |
|---|---|
| Name | Keep |
| Black and white photo | Keep if they need to see your face |
| Date and place of birth | Cover unless asked |
| Driver number | Cover unless they will record it |
| Signature | Cover |
| Permanent address | Keep only when it is your proof of address |
| Back: categories, codes, unique card identifier | Send only if asked |
Field names from DVLA, INS57P. The second column is our recommendation.
The watermark rules are the same as for the passport: recipient, purpose, month, and the All over style if it is going to someone you have not met. Motor claims and vehicle hire files are where copies of licences tend to pile up, and our page for insurance brokers looks at what happens to them once an AI is involved.
Send a copy of your passport securely, by email, WhatsApp or upload
Before sending anything, ask what they actually need. Sometimes the answer is just the number, or a sight of the original at the appointment. If it has to be a copy, send the covered and watermarked version, and only to an address you have checked yourself, not to one supplied by an unexpected message asking for it.
Do they need a copy at all, or only the number or a sight of the original?
CopyGo on to the next question.
No copyGive them the number, or bring the passport to the appointment.
Did you find the address or upload link yourself, rather than in the message asking for the copy?
YesGo on to the last question.
NoContact the organisation through a number or site you already know.
Are the signature and the bottom lines covered, and does the watermark name this recipient and this month?
YesSend it.
NoCover and watermark it first, in the tool above.
An upload link from an agency you are already dealing with keeps the file out of two inboxes. A photo sent by WhatsApp stays in both chats and, on many phones, in both galleries, so delete it from the conversation and your camera roll once the matter is closed. Email is the hardest to take back: assume the copy will outlive the reason you sent it.
The data you cannot see in the photo
A phone photo carries more than the picture: typically the phone’s make and model, the time it was taken and, when location is switched on for the camera, the coordinates of where it was taken. A passport photographed at your kitchen table can carry your home’s position to whoever receives it.
The download from the tool above is a new image or PDF, and the copy carries no location or camera data. Office files have their own version of the problem, covered in removing metadata from PDF and Word files.
If a full copy has already gone out
The ICO describes identity theft as someone using details such as your name, date of birth and addresses to impersonate you, and it names passports and driving licences among the documents to keep safe. If you think a copy is being misused, the steps it lists for victims include protective registration with Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service, whose members then run extra checks when anyone applies for credit using your details.
Ask the recipient to delete the copy, keep an eye on your bank statements and credit file, and send a covered version next time.
Before an AI reads your passport: redact every field, in your browser
A passport photo is about the most sensitive picture on your phone, so the tool works where the picture already is. It reads the page and draws the boxes in your browser, burns the boxes and the watermark into a new file, and hands you a PNG, JPG or PDF to send. Uploaded to a chatbot as it is, a passport photo can outlive the chat it was sent in.
When the aim is a question to an AI rather than a copy for a person, tap the name, number and photo chips as well, so nothing personal is left; what ChatGPT keeps from what you send it explains why that matters for UK users.
Passports are one of the ID documents Nonimo covers, listed on its UK homepage.
The same idea runs through Nonimo, the software that covers names, numbers and addresses before a document or a prompt reaches an AI.
Sources
- HM Passport Office, Basic passport checks (PDF, updated 28 January 2026): series C passports since 2020 and series D from December 2025; the data page on the polycarbonate sheet at the front; wet ink signature on page 3, the Official Observations page; a second colour image on page 3; a window repeating the portrait and date of birth; the nine digit number printed on the inner cover, engraved on the title page and laser perforated through the book.
- ICAO, Doc 9303 Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 4 (PDF): the machine readable zone of a passport is two lines of 44 character positions; the upper line holds the name; the lower line holds the passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex and expiry date, with check digits.
- Home Office, Landlord’s guide to right to rent checks: 1 October 2026: check documents in the presence of the holder, in person or by live video call; be in physical possession of the originals; do not rely on a faxed, scanned or copied version; copy passport pages with the signature, date of birth and photograph; keep copies for at least one year after the tenancy ends; digital checks of British or Irish passports up to 6 months past expiry; the scheme applies in England.
- Home Office, Employer’s guide to right to work checks: 1 October 2026 (PDF): physical possession of the original, checked in the presence of the holder in person or by live video link; no reliance on video alone, a screenshot or a scanned copy; copies kept for the duration of employment and two years afterwards; registered providers can check British and Irish passports up to 6 months past expiry.
- DVLA, INS57P Information on driving licences (PDF): do not post images of your driving licence online; how the driver number encodes surname, date of birth and initials; quote it, or your name and date of birth, when contacting DVLA; the fields printed on the front and back of the photocard, including the unique card identifier.
- ICO, Identity theft: identity theft uses details such as name, date of birth and addresses to impersonate someone; passports and driving licences among the documents to store safely; protective registration with Cifas.
Common questions
What should I write in a passport watermark?
Write who the copy is for, what it is for and the month, for example: copy for the letting agent only, Mill Lane flat, October 2026. If the copy later turns up somewhere else, that line gives it away at a glance. A plain word such as copy, or your initials, tells a later reader nothing.
Should I cover my passport number on a copy?
Only if the recipient has no reason to record it. A letting agent or employer carrying out a formal check will usually want it, while many others only need to see your name and face. The tool leaves it showing to start with, and one tap on its chip covers it.
What are the two lines at the bottom of my passport?
They are the machine readable zone defined by the international standard ICAO Doc 9303: two lines of 44 characters. The top line holds your name; the bottom one holds your passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex and expiry date. Leaving them visible undoes any covering you did above them.
Can a letting agent accept a scanned passport for right to rent?
Not for the check itself. The Home Office landlord's guide says landlords and agents must hold the original, check it with you present in person or by live video call, and must not rely on a scanned or copied version. A British passport can also be checked through a registered digital verification provider.
Does an employer need my original passport for a right to work check?
For a manual check, yes: the Home Office employer's guide requires physical possession of the original and rules out relying on a screenshot or scan. A registered digital verification provider can check British and Irish passports instead, including ones up to six months past their expiry date.
Is it safe to email a copy of my passport?
It is safer when the copy is covered and watermarked first, sent only to an address you have checked yourself, and deleted from your sent items once the matter is closed. Emails get forwarded and sit in inboxes for years, so assume the copy will outlive the reason you sent it.
Can I watermark a passport photo taken on my iPhone?
Yes. The tool on this page reads the HEIC photos an iPhone saves, as well as JPG, PNG, WEBP and PDF, and on a phone you can take the picture from the page itself. The download is a new file, without the location and camera details the original photo carried.
What should I cover on a UK driving licence copy?
Usually the signature, the driver number and the date and place of birth. DVLA explains that the driver number is built from your surname, date of birth and initials. Keep the address only when the licence is your proof of address, and send the back of the card only when someone asks for it.
Can someone remove the watermark from my copy?
Not by deleting a layer, because the text is burned into the pixels of the image you download. Someone determined could try to paint over it, which is why the All over style repeats the line diagonally across the whole page, through the photo and the details, where editing it out leaves visible damage.