At Guatemala’s RENAP DPI Station

RENAP stands for Registro Nacional de las Personas or National Registry of Persons. RENAP is the government institution in charge of replacing the old Guatemalan identification card known as Cédula for the new Guatemalan identification card goes by the name of Documento Personal de Identificación, DPI for short. The DPI is a plastic card, similar to the driver license, with three levels of security and a chip with a microprocessor. The DPI will also incorporate the Códico Único de Identificación, CUI for short, which will be an universal unique identification number, the equivalent to the Social Security Number.

In the picture above, one can see a typical DPI station where fingerprints and photos are taken and match with birth certificates to file all together and request a new DPI identity card. This is the first step to obtain a DPI identity card, after about three weeks, one must come back to pick up the actual DPI card. Before they can give you the card, they have to match your fingerprints with those filed in the chip.

To learn more about Cédulas, RENAP, DPI and birth certificates, follow the white rabbit to RENAP Is Retiring Guatemala’s Old ID Cards.

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