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Believe me you don't want free smartphone from the government. I'm astonished how easily people accepted to load everything onto their private smartphones. This happened so fast, within one decade.

A free smartphone only for this. I don't want it on my phone.

Yup. You can always keep it powered off and in a Faraday sleeve until it's time to use it at the border. It should be possible to distribute a device that's smaller and lighter than a passport, and I'd be all for it, so long as it's at least as reliable and/or if there's a fallback process when it isn't.

I like my RSA fob, they changed the app name one day and I wasted time working with the IT department.

In the US, it currently costs $165 in total for a passport book (new or renewal).[1]

That’s more than enough for a cheap android phone.

1. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-app...

We can label the service 'Free', for "17 layers of indirection in paying for it" values of 'Free'.

Not much above emotional attachment is free here under the sun.

In my experience, emotional attachment is often the most expensive thing there is.