Director general of Civil Status Elias al-Khoury (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The director general of Civil Status Elias Khoury explained on Wednesday the mechanism that will be implemented to allow the citizens to use their Lebanese ID card instead of the ekhraj eid (civil registry extract) in official administrations and institutions, according to the state-run National News Agency.
In a press conference held at the Radisson Blu hotel in Verdun, Khoury said that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has been "obligating government departments and institutions to accept the ID instead of the ekhraj eid" since 2011. However, he said, "there has been no updating of data" since 2011 which hindered the process. Khoury stressed the importance of "updating personal data" and for "every record in the personal status to be correct and accurate" in order to replace the ekhraj eid.
Khoury also recalled a circular released by the Ministry of Interior in 2024 which stipulates the adoption of the Lebanese ID card when submitting an administrative transaction, provided that "a special identification document is attached to it, downloaded from the website of the General Directorate of Personal Status, as an alternative to the ekhraj eid ... noting that this identification document includes a QR Code to ensure its authenticity and validity with the ID card number." The only exception to this rule is in the instance that there is a "legislative provision that requires the holder of an administrative transaction to present an ekhraj eid."
According to explanations dated March 27 on the website of the personal status, this document can be obtained by scanning with a smartphone camera the QR code appearing on any ekhraj eid issued after Nov.9, 2023, entering the 12-digit ID card number of the person concerned in the designated box at the bottom of the page, then entering the ID card issuance date on the back of the ID card.
In its 2024 circular, the ministry recalled the aforementioned 2011 cabinet circular which was not implemented back then due to several reasons including the "failure to legibly mention [a person's] denomination on the ID card, the lack of linkage between person status registry offices, the failure to update the information on the ID card by the holder due to the lack of a validity date for the card."
However, "since 2020, the General Directorate of Civil Status linked all personal status registries electronically to the identity card department after the launch of the electronic ekhraj eid, [which] was followed in September 2023 by the development of a data program so that the identity card number is included in this data." This, in turn, can pave the way for the implementation of the interior ministry's circular.
Khoury also explained that, since taking his position in 2017, he had not succeeded in his plan of modernizing administration procedures relating to the ID cards and population statistics, due to the "economic and financial collapse [which started in 2019], its accompanying events, the [2020] Beirut port explosion and employees' strikes."
On a separate note but still within the context of administrative procedures, the General Security confirmed to L'Orient Today that it took a new decision last week regarding passports which forces people to go to their place of origin in order to submit a Lebanese passport application instead of submitting them from their place of residence. The source in the General Security could not give the reason behind this decision.