Australian Passport Number

Identifies Australian passport numbers using a broad letter-prefix pattern covering single-letter and two-letter series. Requires corroborative evidence from travel-credential and issuing-nation keywords.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: low
Confidence justification: Low confidence standalone: the letter+digits pattern matches many non-passport identifiers. Travel-credential keywords are essential for reliable detection.
Detection quality: Verified
Jurisdictions: au
Regulations: AML/CTF Act (Cth), IPA 2009 (Qld), NDB Scheme (Cth), Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
Frameworks: ISO 27001
Data categories: pii, government-id
Scope: wide
Risk rating: 9
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b[A-Z]{1,2}\d{7}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

travel credentials, travel document reference, border document, DFAT, Australian Passport Office, passport, passport number, travel document, australian passport, ID number, identification, ID card, license, permit, registration, certificate

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

PA1234567 — Two-letter prefix with 7 digits
N1234567 — Single-letter prefix with 7 digits
R1234567 — Modern R-series ePassport format
AB1234567 — Two-letter Australian passport format

Should not match

1234567 — No letter prefix
ABC1234567 — Three-letter prefix is invalid
a1234567 — Lowercase letter prefix should not match

Known false positives

Serial numbers and part codes using letter+digit format. Mitigation: Require travel-credential keywords in proximity.
Policy documents discussing passport formats without real data. Mitigation: Layer with additional structural signals and form-field context.

References

Australia passport number entity definition - Microsoft Learn