When a passenger steps forward to get on a flight, an agent could hold up the boarding pass and passport in front of their smart glasses, scanning barcodes on the two documents simultaneously.

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Late last month, an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian official met with her and asked her to pass along a fake passport to someone else, but instead Ms. Chapman brought it to New York City police and was later arrested.

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Before leaving, I enter my passport info online and printed my boarding pass at home.

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Heading through Barcelona airport on the way home, I flashed the virtual boarding pass on my non-NFC phone and went through without showing any physical document - except a passport.

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