Mobile verification device to authenticate travel documents

The invention relates to a mobile verification device for authenticity testing of travel documents, which weighs less than 1000 g, particularly less than 700 g. The verification device comprises an identification device for identifying an authorized user, a release device which releases the use of the mobile verification device based on a signal of the identifying means to use, an optical reading unit to read out information contained in the pages of the travel document image-wise and / or alpahnumerischer information, a data processing unit for processing the signals supplied by the optical reading unit according to a predetermined algorithm, a graphical display unit for displaying the read out image-wise and / or alphanumeric data and the verification result determined by the data processing unit and a communication unit for encrypted transmission of the read out data and / or from the data processing unit determined verification result to at least one central station and for receiving relevant data of the mi ndestens a central location over a communication network.