alt Hacker News> Relying upon the Internet being there for ID purposes is a massive fail.
Why would you need internet? Document holder smartphone can cache the document for years and present it over NFC (including photo, signature, etc). Just like existing biometric passports work, but replace the physical passport with smartphone app.
To check against $your-local-law-enforcement-agency database, $your-local-immigration-agency for history of entry, etc.
The internet requirement is not there for the person presenting the document, it's for the person/system checking it.