Afghan identity card

The Afghan Tazkira (د تابعیت تذکره) is an official national identity document issued to every national and citizen of Afghanistan, including a member of the Afghan diaspora around the world.

The document is used to obtain an electronic Afghan identity card (e-Tazkira), which is valid for up to 10 years and required for many things such as employment, registering in school, operating a business, buying or renting a house, opening a bank account, sending or receiving money through Western Union, purchasing a SIM card, obtaining a passport, booking airline tickets, staying in hotels, etc. The documents serve as proof of identity and residency but more importantly Afghan nationality. Both the paper Tazkira certificate and e-Tazkira are issued by the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), which has offices in nearly all provinces of Afghanistan.

The Afghan Tazkira, which is older than 100 years, has been modernized in recent years. The e-Tazkira campaign was officially launched in Kabul in May of 2018 when then-President Ashraf Ghani and First Lady Rula Ghani received their smart cards. Distribution of the modern Tazkiras later began in other parts of Afghanistan. The e-Tazkira complies with international standards for identity documents. As of 2024, over twelve million people of Afghanistan have obtained their e-Tazkiras. This includes the Afghans that are temporarily residing in Iran and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Afghan citizens that are temporarily residing in Pakistan are also issued special documents by Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In May 2022, the Government of Afghanistan announced that it will start issuing Tazkira certificates with a new design bearing the emblem of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Procedure
In order to obtain a Tazkira, an application must be prepared and filed with the NSIA. The processing fee is 500 afghanis, which is the equivalent of around $7 US dollars. The Tazkira certificate and e-Tazkira are both issued by the NSIA. Evidence that the applicant is in fact a national and citizen of Afghanistan is required. This can be proven by providing older Afghan Tazkira along with family and relatives appearing as witnesses, and they must also have valid e-Tazkiras or passports. Applicants below the age of 18 years must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians before the application can be submitted. The e-Tazkira can only be issued after the entire verification and biometrics process is completed. In some cases this requires multiple trips to the main NSIA office in Kabul.

Characteristics of e-Tazkira
The e-Tazkira is a polycarbonate smart card, about 86 × 54 millimeters in size. On the front is the bearer's photo along with personal information, which is in Dari and Pashto languages. On the back is a gold-plated contact chip, and to the right is the bearer's smaller photo, with some of the bearer's personal information in English.

At the top of the current e-Tazkira is written the following:


 * 1) Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت)
 * 2) National Statistics and Information Authority (د احصایې او معلوماتو ملي اداره)
 * 3) Citizenship ID (د تابعیت تذکره)

Printed data
The descriptions of the fields on the e-Tazkira are printed in Dari, Pashto, and English language, and include the following personal information:


 * National identification number (13 digits as follows: 0000-0000-00000)
 * Given name (with surname in quotation marks on the front and in capital letters on the back)
 * Father's full name
 * Grandfather's full name
 * Date of birth
 * Date of issue
 * Date of expiry (up to 10 years)
 * Place of birth
 * Place of origin
 * Place of current residence
 * Religion
 * Nationality
 * Ethnicity
 * Gender
 * Holder's signature (optional)

A machine readable zone is printed on the bottom of the back-side of the card.