The comprehensive national identification card replacement program shall be implemented from December 21, 2005 through December 31, 2006. To understand the situation of the handling of this program by the household registration office, on December 13, 2005, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) specifically tasked the Banciao City Household Registration Office to demonstrate the procedural flow of the comprehensive card replacement scheme, with the MOI Minister Su, Jia-Chyuan (former) personally presiding over it.
Personnel from the Banciao City Household Registration Office demonstrated the card replacement procedure from notice to replace cards, going to the villages to collect photographs, producing the cards, and getting the cards personally. The MOI has expressed high satisfaction over the stability of the card-producing system as well as in the competence of the household registration office personnel.
The MOI has come up with many measures to make the ID replacement process more convenient for everybody. These include providing house calls to those who have little or no mobility, special services for indigenous people, free photo shoot coupons for low and below middle income households, and others. The prescription for the submission of photographs has been extended from two months to one year; household registration offices nationwide will also work overtime on Saturday mornings during the card replacement period (from December 21, 2005 through December 31, 2006) to serve the public better.
The new national identification card is 5.4 centimeters in length and 8.57 centimeters in width, which is in keeping with ISO International Standard Dimension which also similar to the dimensions of credit cards and health insurance IC cards, making it convenient to carry and possessed 21 anti-counterfeit design features. It is encased in clear plastic, making it practical and presentable at the same time. At the same time, worth noting is the fact that as long as the indigenous name of the indigene is less than 15 letters, it can be printed out on the computer. As for the Romanized spelling of Chinese names, it can written horizontally from left to right below the Chinese name; as long as it is less than 20 words, it can also be printed out on the computer.
Every special municipal, county (city) government has already carefully planned the procedures related to the comprehensive replacement of ID cards by the citizenry; all of the replacement timelines have already been announced before the end of November 2005. Furthermore, the information has been uploaded into the official websites of the household registration offices. Individuals may choose to either check the information online, wait for the replacement notice, or inquire personally at the household registration office before replacing their identification cards in the time and place arranged by the household registration office.
The MOI pointed out that in line with the start of the comprehensive replacement of national identification cards starting December 21, 2005, household registration offices nationwide have started sending out replacement notice yesterday (the 12th). Through preliminary training, field simulation, and demonstration of the comprehensive ID card replacement procedures, the MOI is more than confident that the close to 19 million national identification cards would all be replaced by the end of 2006. At the same time, it is once again calling the attention of everybody; after getting the ID card replacement notice sent by the household registration office to go and have their identification cards replaced according to the time and place specified in the notice. This will greatly reduce the waiting time, as well as time spent waiting in line. Moreover, it can improve the level of efficiency and service quality of the household registration office in carrying out the replacement work.