Verify a Belgian Identity Card Online : 4 Checkpoints

The Belgian national identity card is an official document that allows any Belgian citizen to prove their identity and, as long as it is valid, their Belgian nationality, just like a passport.

The purpose of this card is to enhance security and facilitate identification in electronic transactions, while reducing the risk of forgery.

So, how can you verify a Belgian identity card and ensure that the presented document is authentic? The answer is in this article!

The first step to verify a Belgian identity card when you have access to the original document is to check its overall appearance: it must show no signs of cutting, peeling, modification, or any correction.

Pay special attention to the area on and around the photo.

The new electronic identity card is in ID-1 format, the size of a credit card.

The second step to verify a Belgian identity card online is to check the consistency of the information on the document.

The document number can be found in two different places: at the top of the front side, and in the first line of the MRZ (Machine Readable Zone).

It consists of 12 characters.

Both must be identical:

The personal number of the cardholder can also be found in two distinct places: in the middle of the back of the card, and at the end of the second MRZ line on the back:

The cardholder’s date of birth can also be found in two distinct places: in the middle of the front of the card, and at the beginning of the second MRZ line in YYMMDD format:

Similarly, the surname and given names can be found on the front of the card and in the third line of the MRZ:

Finally, the last element present twice on the card is the expiration date, found on the front and in the second MRZ line in YYMMDD format:

The lower part of the new Belgian identity card consists of three lines containing the information shown on the card, with validation keys that prevent reading errors or forgery.

1. Document Type: 2 characters, code indicating the type of document, represented by the letters “ID”.
2. Issuing Country: 3 characters, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the issuing country.
3. Card Number: 13 characters, the unique card number.
4. Check Digit: 1 character, the check digit of the unique card number.
5. End of Line: filler chevrons “<” to complete the line.

1. Date of Birth: 6 characters, year, month, and day of birth in YYMMDD format.
2. Check Digit: 1 character, the check digit of the date of birth.
3. Gender: 1 character, “M” or “F”.
4. Expiration Date: 6 digits, expiration date of the card in YYMMDD format.
5. Check Digit: 1 character, the check digit of the expiration date.
6. Country Code: 3 characters, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code of the cardholder’s nationality.
7. Personal Number: 11 characters.
8. Check Digit: 1 character, the check digit of the concatenation of characters line 1 positions 6-15, line 2 positions 1-7, line 2 positions 9-15.

1. Holder’s Surname and Given Names: the holder’s surname followed by given names, starting with the family name followed by the first name. The family name and first name are separated by two “<” characters. If the family name or given names are compound or multiple, they are separated by the “<” character. Spaces and apostrophes are replaced by the “<” character, and the name is truncated to 30 characters if necessary. Any accents on letters are removed. The line is then padded with the “<” character.

A Belgian identity card includes 4 check digits (security keys) that allow the validation of the preceding information.

These help prevent transcription errors or intentional/unintentional modifications.

The algorithm used to create and validate the check digits is common to all identity documents: characters have a weight that is multiplied by a factor depending on their position in the string (7, 3, and 1).

Digits have their face value (“0” equals 0, “1” equals 1, up to “9” equals 9), the “<” chevron has a value of 0, and letters start at 10 for “A”, 11 for “B”, up to 35 for “Z”.

Let’s take as an example the check digit of the date of birth from the specimen above.

The character string to validate is: “940101”.

To calculate the check digit, we proceed as follows:

– “9” has a weight of 9 and is in the first position, so multiply by 7: 9 * 7 = 63

– “4” has a weight of 4 and is in the second position, so multiply by 3: 4 * 3 = 12, added to the previous 63 gives 12 + 63 = 75.

– “0” has a weight of 0 and is in the third position, multiply by 1: 0 * 1 = 0, added to 75 gives 0 + 75 = 75.

– 1 * 7 = 7 and 7 + 75 = 82

– 0 * 3 = 0 and 0 + 82 = 82

– 1 * 1 = 1 and 1 + 82 = 83

The total is 83, from which we extract modulo 10 (the remainder of division by 10), keeping only the last digit, “3”.

Our check digit is valid because “3” indeed appears on the document!

An identity document has various features that help validate its authenticity.

This is the last step to verify a Belgian identity card online, as it is the most time-consuming.

Front side

Laser engraving

Laser engraving of the characters which are embossed:

“Ghost” photo

A secondary “ghost” photo is visible on the right side of the main photo:

Ultraviolet check

Some elements are visible only under ultraviolet rays, but this requires specialized equipment (thus not suitable for verifying a Belgian identity card online):

Optically variable feature

Some elements become visible by changing the orientation of the card:

Back side

Laser engraving

Laser engraving of characters which are embossed:

“Ghost” photo

A secondary “ghost” photo is visible on the right side of the main photo:

Ultraviolet check

Some elements are visible only under ultraviolet rays, but this requires specialized equipment (thus not suitable for verifying a Belgian identity card online):

Data matrix type barcode

A QR code encoding information related to the holder is available on the back side of the card:

You now have all the keys to verify a Belgian identity card online and ensure it is authentic!

No specialized equipment is needed: with a little vigilance and time, you can avoid most of the frauds you might encounter daily!

You can also use our service that performs the checks in seconds via our web application: results are available directly in the app and as a PDF report!