National identity document (Spain)

The national identity document (DNI), colloquially known as the identity card, is the identity document that is issued in Spain. Since March 2006 it is electronic. It is a polycarbonate card that incorporates a chip with digital information, which has dimensions identical to those of commonly used credit cards.

It is mandatory from the age of 14, although it can be requested from the registration of the minor in the Civil Registry. As of December 2021, more than 85 million electronic DNIs had been issued in Spain.

History

In 1824, King Ferdinand VII created the Police in Spain and granted it the exclusive power to create registers that included age, sex, status, profession and nature of the neighborhood. This was his first attribution, a competence that has been maintained to this day and that has historically linked the National Police Corps with the identity card.

20th century

The creation of a new document was launched through a decree on March 2, 1944, to have census information on citizens. For the design of the first DNI, a public contest was called, which was awarded to Aquilino Rieusset Planchón, receiving a prize of 30,000 pesetas of the time.

The initiative to create a DNI started, in the first half of the XX century, by Francisco Franco. In 1951 he obtained his own identity card. The first forced to formalize it were the prisoners and those who remained on probation. Secondly, the men who, due to their profession or business, moved frequently. Thirdly, men residing in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Then, men in localities between &&&&&&&&&&025000.&&&&&0 25,000 and &&&&&&&&&0100000.&&&&&0100,000 inhabitants, then the women who traveled for work reasons and so on until completing the whole of society over the years.

Zaragoza was the first provincial capital where the DNI was issued. The trial was later extended to Valencia, and from there it was extended to the rest of the municipalities in Spain until completing 59 fixed teams distributed in all regions except Navarra.

The first design of the modern DNI card dates from 1951 and included details of affiliation, profession, employment or position. Green in color, it incorporated the national coat of arms in force during the Franco regime, with the eagle of San Juan. In addition, the category of the subject was indicated according to his economy. The second came in 1962 and incorporated marital status and blood group. Its blue color responded to the corporate tone of the Police. The user's gender disappeared in this version. The next format appeared in 1965 and was issued until 1980. It has been one of the most popular cards. The same registry data was maintained, except for the signature of the Director of the team that issued the card, which was deleted.

The most significant variants of the fourth DNI model, valid from 1981 to 1985, were the inclusion of the new national coat of arms and the suppression of the previous categories. The citizen's sex was again included. In the following model (1985-1991), profession, marital status, and blood group were discarded, as it sometimes led to medical errors. In the 1990s, models made using computer technology were devised. The historical fingerprint stopped being taken with ink and appeared printed on the DNI, to be taken digitally and recorded in the databases of the National Police Corps (that is, the Spanish police have the fingerprints of all citizens) and the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre assumed responsibility for its preparation.

21st century: electronic DNI

In 2006, a chip was added to the DNI, turning it into an electronic identity document. This chip made it possible to streamline procedures with the Administration and the Internet.

In 2015, the DNI 3.0 with NFC technology was launched. In August 2021, the DNI 4.0 was launched, with security improvements and greater integration with the identification documentation of the rest of the EU. For example, the flag of the European Union, and the identification of the document in English.

Regulations

The national identity document is a personal and non-transferable document issued by the Ministry of the Interior that enjoys the protection that public and official documents grant by law. It is the only document with sufficient value on its own for the accreditation, for all purposes, of the identity and personal data of its owner. Its owner is obliged to the custody and conservation of the same during its period of validity. Each DNI is assigned a personal number that is considered a personal numerical identifier of a general nature.

To obtain a DNI it is necessary to have Spanish nationality. All Spaniards have the right to be issued the national identity document, its obtaining being mandatory for those over fourteen years of age residing in Spain and for those of the same age who, residing abroad, move to Spain for a period of time. less than six months. Persons who fail to comply with the obligation to obtain personal documentation may be penalized.

All the people obliged to obtain the DNI are also obliged to show it when required by the authority. There is no obligation to carry it permanently, but there is an obligation to identify themselves and to show it to the authority if it is carried. If the DNI is required by the authority and it cannot be shown because it is not carried at that time, another document may be shown to identify oneself, the authority deciding whether or not it is sufficiently valid as an identification document. For example, the driver's license is not an identity document, but the authority, at its discretion, can accept it as valid for identification.

In the event that identification is not possible because they do not carry the DNI at that time, that person may be required to accompany the authority or the agents to the nearest dependencies with adequate means to carry out the identification. The case of refusing to show the ID when it is carried with it, or refusing to go to the police station to make the identification, may constitute an administrative offense for disobedience (with penalties of a fine of between 601 and 30,000 euros) or, depending on the seriousness, it can become constitutive of a crime of disobedience to authority.

Expiration

The national identity document is valid for two years for persons under five years of age, five years for persons under thirty years of age, ten years for persons under seventy years of age, and permanent for those people over the age of seventy. Exceptionally, permanent validity can be granted to people over thirty years of age who prove their condition as severely disabled, or validity for one year if the documents required for its issuance cannot be presented.

ID as a travel document

File:DNI as a travel document.svg

Countries that accept DNI as a travel document.
Spain DNI accepted (EU) DNI accepted Accepted in some cases (up to 2025)

The current DNI serves as a substitute for the passport and identifies the bearer for all purposes in the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as in Albania, Andorra, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Vatican City, Serbia and Switzerland.

From October 1, 2021, it ceased to be valid as a substitute for a passport to enter the United Kingdom, except for those people who have used this document in their registration in the "EU Settlement Scheme", who may continue to use it until on December 31, 2025.

Number

The national identity document number consists of eight digits and an alphabetic control character. This letter is obtained from the complete ID number divided by the number 23. The remainder resulting from said division, which is between 0 and 22, is assigned the control letter according to an equivalence. The letters are not used: I, Ñ, O, U. The I and O are dropped to avoid confusion with other characters, such as 1, l, or 0. The Ñ is dropped to avoid confusion with N.

From the beginning, and with a method that is still in force, the DNI numbers were assigned in batches to the expedition teams. Thus, each police station or mobile team that processes the DNI, has a sufficient margin of free numbers. If you run out of that quota, you are given a new batch, not necessarily correlative to the previous one. Thus, a false belief is banished: the low numbers of the DNI did not correspond in the past to people who have already died. No one bears "the number of a death".

Number 1 was awarded in 1951 to the then dictator, Francisco Franco Bahamonde. Number 2 was named after his wife, Carmen Polo and Martínez Valdés. Number 3 ended up for her daughter Carmen Franco y Polo. Numbers 4 to 9 have remained vacant. From 10 onwards and up to number 99 are reserved for the Spanish royal family. Number 10 was assigned to King Juan Carlos I, 11 to Queen Sofía of Greece, 12 to Infanta Elena and 14 to Infanta Cristina. The number 13 remained unused due to superstition. The DNI of King Felipe VI has the number 15. The Princess of Asturias Leonor has 16 and the Infanta Sofía has 17.

Elements

Between December 2015 and August 1, 2021, version 3.0 of the electronic DNI was issued at all issuance offices. It was a plastic polycarbonate card, which incorporated an electronic chip with digital information. Its dimensions were identical to those of commonly used credit cards (85.60 mm wide × 53.98 mm high). This version of the DNI has the following elements: Since August 2021, DNI 4.0 has been issued, in European format, with physical characteristics similar to the previous one, but with improved security measures and greater integration with European documentation (the flag of the European Union, and its name in English is included).

• In the front:
  • The central body indicates surnames, name, sex, nationality and date of birth of the holder of the DNI. It also indicates the serial number of the physical support of the card, date of validity of the document and handwritten signature of the holder.
  • On the left side is shown the photograph of the holder recorded in black and white and larger than in previous versions. The photo should be 2,6 × 3.2 cm in size, the person's face should look directly at the camera and be illuminated, the background should be clear and uniform. Below the photograph is indicated the personal number of the holder's ID including the verification letter.
  • On the right side there is a transparent window with a laser engraving of the physical support number. Below is a changing image recorded in laser (CLI) that consists of the date of issuance in DD MM AA format and a miniature photograph of the holder. Below is the CAN number (Card Access Number) for access to the RFID chip.

• On the back:
  • At the top, address, location, province and country of the owner ' s home are indicated. Below is the birthplace with the province and the country and the name of the holder's legal ascendants. On the left is indicated the code of the electronic DNI expedition team. There is also the cryptographic chip with NFC antenna.
  • At the bottom is the information printed with OCR-B for mechanized reading on the identity of the citizen according to OACI regulations for travel documents.

• In the cryptographic chip, in digital format:
  • Electronic certificate to authenticate the personality of the citizen
  • Electronic certificate to sign electronically, with the same legal validity as the handwritten signature
  • Certificate of the Broadcast Certification Authority
  • Number of keys of each electronic certificate
  • Biometric fingerprint template
  • Digitalized photograph of the citizen
  • Digitalized image of the handwritten signature
  • Citizen filiation data, corresponding to the personalized content on the card

The electronic chip does not contain additional personal data to those that appear printed on the surface of the card, nor does it contain health, fiscal, judicial, criminal data, traffic violations, etc...

There are some rules you have to obey:

1. Don't show any expression on your face.
2. Don't bow your head.
3. Stay in front of the camera and look directly at the lens.

In addition, the resolution and quality of the photo must be very high. On the other hand, the photo will be rejected if it is:

• too dark or too clear, with little contrast;
• pixelated, blurry, not visible;
• It has shadows on your face;
• not centered, too close or too far;
• without color, marked or wrinkled;
• does not have a clear and clean approach.

Security measures

In the electronic DNI, various security elements have been developed to prevent its falsification:

• Visible measurements in plain view: optically variable inks, reliefs, safety funds
• Verifiable measures by optical and electronic means: visible inks with ultraviolet light, micro-writing
• Digital security measures: Figure of the chip data, access to the functionality of the electronic DNI by personal access key (PIN), the keys never leave the chip, the Certification Authority is the General Directorate of the Police.

Electronic ID

In order to use the electronic DNI, you must know the personal password. This key can be changed at the DNI update points of the DNI issuing offices. Second, you need a personal computer and a smart card reader. There are different implementations, either integrated into the keyboard, or external (connected via USB) or through a PCMCIA card. The smart card reader must be valid for the use of the electronic DNI. To do this, it must be compatible with the ISO 7816 standard. Finally, you must download the software provided by the General Directorate of Police on the electronic DNI portal.

In October 2011, five years after its launch, El País reported that the use of the electronic DNI was very low, and that the few people who use digital certificates preferred to use the FNMT digital certificate.

Vulnerabilities

In November 2017, the General Directorate of Police disabled the functionality of digital certificates in documents issued from April 2015, since according to a study by the Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, they were vulnerable to attack known as ROCA, which made it possible to guess the private keys of the user of the affected certificates by analyzing the public keys. The authorities reported that this attack had not been detected in any DNI, but that the certificates of vulnerable DNIs had been deactivated as a preventive measure. They also reported that the affected documents were still valid as identification documents, even though the digital certificates could not be used. In December 2017, after applying the necessary technical solutions, it was reported that it was now possible to go to a police station to update the certificates to fix the problem.

This vulnerability not only affected DNI certificates, but it is a generic vulnerability detected in some cryptographic cards from some manufacturers, among which were DNIs issued after the indicated date. According to the study, the flaw was in a code library used by Infineon, one of the most important providers of smart chips. The ruling implies that it cannot be verified if a digital signature was made by the owner of the DNI or that the encrypted data is exposed to third parties.

For this reason, moreover, the validity of the signatures already made with these documents is called into question, since it is not possible to prove who has signed them. Another vulnerability in the issuance of the signature has also been revealed: it does not certify when a signature was made, nor the date or time of the operation.

Legal framework

• Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the domestic market and by which the Directive 1999/93/EC is repealed.
• Act No. 6/2020 of 11 November regulates certain aspects of electronic trust services.
• Organic Law 3/2018, of 5 December, for the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights.
• Royal Decree 1553/2005 regulating the national identity document and its electronic signature certificates.
• Royal Decree 1586/2009 of 16 October amending Royal Decree 1553/2005 of 23 December regulating the issuance of the national identity document and its electronic signature certificates.
• Royal Decree 869/2013 of 8 November amending Royal Decree 1553/2005 of 23 December, regulating the issuance of the national identity document and its electronic signature certificates.
• Royal Decree 414/2015 of 29 May amending Royal Decree 1553/2005 of 23 December, regulating the issuance of the national identity document and its electronic signature certificates.
• Order INT/738/2006 of 13 March adopting the declaration of certification practices and policies of the Ministry of the Interior.
• Order INT/3128/2006 of 29 September, adopting the logo identifier of the promotional image of the DNI-e and establishing the criteria for its use.
• Instruction of 7 February 2007 of the General Directorate of Registrations and Notariat on registration requirements in the issuance of the verbatim birth certificate for obtaining the National Identity Document.
• Resolution of 20 November 2007 of the Undersecretariat, which publishes the Council of Ministers Agreement of 2 November 2007 on the implementation of a pre-dating system for obtaining the National Identity and Passport Document.

Foreign identity card

To obtain a DNI it is necessary to have Spanish nationality. Foreigners legally residing in Spain have a card with similar characteristics but in blue tones, called the foreigner identity card.

The foreigner identity card is the document that provides documentation to foreigners in a situation of legal permanence in Spain. This card certifies that authorization has been granted, in accordance with current regulations, to remain in Spanish territory for a period of more than six months. The foreigner identity card is personal and non-transferable.

The foreigner's identity card contains the foreigner's identity number (NIE).