The Saudi National ID Card (Arabic: Biṭāgat Al-hawiyya Al-waṭaniyya بطاقة الهوية الوطنية), commonly known by its old colloquial name Biṭāgat Al-ʼaḥwāl (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: بطاقة الأحوال ), is a Saudi Arabian

identity card An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...

and proof of citizenship. The card is used for identification with "government agencies and third party service providers such as banks". The card may also be used for travel within the countries of the

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

(GCC) since April 2025.

Physical appearance and data storage

The card is credit-card-sized and contains a 2.86-megabyte optical stripe and a contact chip to store data, as well as finger prints and a facial image. The card does contain a barcode, but no machine-readable zone. All fields of the card are in

except for the texts ''National ID Card'' and ''Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Interior'', which is also present in English.

References

{{Saudi Arabia topics

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

Government of Saudi Arabia

Physical appearance and data storage

See also

References