Italian electronic identity card
| Italian electronic identity card (Carta d'Identità Elettronica) |
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|---|---|
Front of the card
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Reverse
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| Issued by |
 Italy
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| Valid in |
Italy and for travel to: Europe (except Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova (old version) and Kosovo (old version)) Egypt Georgia Jordan (organised tours through Aqaba Airport) Tunisia (organised tours) Turkey
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| Type of document | Identity document |
The Carta d'Identità Elettronica (Electronic identity card, CIE) is a personal identification document that replaced the paper-based identity card in Italy. The first Italian electronic identity cards were issued in 2001 and are now available to all Italian citizens from 15 years of age.
The CIE is intended for both online and offline identification. The information is printed and stored on a chip as well as a laser band. Specifically, the chip contains a digital certificate for online authentication and (optionally) a certificate for digital signatures. The CIE is designed to give access to e-government services and will become the standard for access to online services offered to Italian citizens by public authorities. The technical specifications for the Italian identity card have been developed by the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs in collaboration with the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
After more than 10 years of trials, the use of the electronic card was, as of 2011, still limited to relatively few municipalities, and the online features had not been implemented; as per decree of 25 May 2016, every classic identity card with expired validity must be replaced by the electronic version.
Italian citizens are entitled to request an identity card, issued by the municipality in which they live. The card lasts ten years and is a valid document to leave the country when travelling to another EU country.
It is not compulsory to carry the card itself, as the authorities may ask for only the identity of a person, not a specific document. However, if public-security officers are not convinced of the claimed identity, like from a verbally-provided identity claim, they may keep the claimant in custody until the identity is ascertained. Such an arrest is limited to the time necessary for identification and has no legal consequences.
A classic Italian identity card (now in the process of being replaced by a newer template) has four pages containing the following:
A field for fingerprints has been present for a long time at the bottom of the third page but is rarely used. Also, physical features are normally not measured rigorously but are just verbally asked to the applicant (such as height) or quickly ascertained by administrative personnel on the spot, with no checks for hair dying or cosmetic lenses.
The classic Italian ID card is made of paper, not plastic, and its lamination with plastic pouches is explicitly forbidden, as that would interfere with the anti-forging heat sensitive pattern on the back of the card (see reference). Lamination of ID cards was popular and widely practised until the current prohibition was introduced because of the low quality of the employed paper, which tends to break apart after a few months in a wallet. Removable pouches are often employed to limit damage, but the odd size of the card (about 1 cm larger than a plastic credit card in both directions) makes it difficult to store it easily in a wallet.
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Wikipedia