The National ID Card (Arabic: Bitaqat Al-Hawia Al-Wataniya بطاقة الهوية الوطنية), Commonly known by its old name Bitaqat Al-Ahwal Al-Madaniya (Arabic: بطاقة الأحوال المدنية), is a Saudi Arabian identity 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 (GCC). Since April 2010, the card can also be used for women to travel to other GCC countries in the absence of a guardian (although travel permission still needs to be obtained).
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 Arabic except for the texts National ID Card and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Interior, which is also present in English.