Many Algerians from abroad seek to acquire real estate in Algeria. In this approach, some members of the diaspora face administrative difficulties. In the absence of a national identity card, they cannot perform the necessary real estate formalities.
Faced with this problem, the deputy for emigration Fares Rahmani asked the question to the Minister of the Interior and Local Authorities Brahim Merad. He asked him to send a note to all administrations and banks in order to ask them to accept the passport instead of the identity card for Algerians from abroad.
In his written response, the Minister of the Interior explained that there is “no difference” between the passport and the national identity card, and that the two documents prove “simultaneously the identity and nationality of their holders”. He added that the information contained in a passport is “almost identical to that of a national identity card, in particular the civil and the biometric data of the citizen, which allow the verification of his identity”.
Algeria: Can passport replace the identity card?
The Minister explained, however, that the exclusive use of the identity card in Algeria “aims to encourage citizens to request this document” which is issued “free of charge, unlike the passport, whose obtaining procedures require the payment of a stamp right”. He recalled that the passport is “required only to get out of the national territory or return”, and its use abroad. The Minister of the Interior explains, however, that his use only by Algerians from abroad as an identity document on the national territory could create a “feeling of inequality between citizens”, and reduce the importance of the CIB.
The Minister of the Interior concluded that “no provision is in principle opposed to the use of the passport as an alternative to the national identity card (…) It is also understood that each institution or organization, taking into account its specificities, must decide to accept or refuse a passport”.
After this answer, which does not decide in a clear way on the bottom of the problem, the deputy Fares Rahmani will request the Minister of Housing, Town Planning and the City so that the passport is recognized in the transactions linked to the purchase of real estate in Algeria.
