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Code System Owner

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

999 Robert-Bourassa Boulevard, Montréal, Québec H3C 5H7, Canada

"ICAO is funded and directed by 193 national governments to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).

Its core function is to maintain an administrative and expert bureaucracy (the ICAO Secretariat) supporting these diplomatic interactions, and to research new air transport policy and standardization innovations as directed and endorsed by governments through the ICAO Assembly, or by the ICAO Council which the assembly elects."

ICAO has developed a technical specification (sample version form 2021 here) to "allow compatibility and global interchange
using both visual (eye readable) and machine readable means. The specifications lay down standards for visas which can, where issued by a State and accepted by a receiving State, be used for travel purposes. The MRV[Machine Readable Visa] shall, as a minimum, contain the data specified herein in a form that is legible both visually and by optical character recognition
methods.."

Further, defining that "Sex of MRV-A[Format A - Machine Readable Visa] holder, when included, is to
be specified by use of the single initial
commonly used in the language of the
State of issue. If translation into English,
French or Spanish is necessary, followed
by an oblique and the capital letter F for
female, M for male, or X for unspecified."

"Sex of MRV-B[Format B - Machine Readable Visa] holder, when included, is to
be specified by use of the single initial
commonly used in the language of the
State of issue. If translation into English,
French or Spanish is necessary, followed
by an oblique and the capital letter F for
female, M for male, or X for unspecified."

"Copyright © ICAO 2021. All rights reserved. None of the materials provided on this web site may be used, reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or the use of any information storage and retrieval system, except as provided for in the site Terms and Conditions, without permission in writing from ICAO."