Hungarian Citizen ID and Passport Issuance System

The project was created by the Hungarian government in 1999 to modernize the existing manual system of the Ministry of Interior which utilized the major police stations around the country to process requests by citizens for ID cards and passport. The goal of the modernization was to create a faster, more efficient and more secure system for the applicant enrolment and issuance of ID cards and Passports in the country.

 

Multipolaris took part in the project by providing a wide array of services as well as new state of the art solutions for the enrolment and issuance processes.

 

One of the first elements delivered by Multipolaris for this system was the implementation of a fully automated electronic enrolment system which included the digital capture and processing of the citizens’ photograph and signature. This system is still in use today throughout the country, and has been continuously updated to the latest versions of software and capabilities as a result of the ongoing service agreement Multipolaris has with the Hungarian Government.

 

As a result of this modernization process, the Hungarian Government relocated the applicant enrolment centers from the police stations to 350 newly established document registration offices throughout the country. In these new document registration offices the citizens are not only able to apply for ID cards and Passports but also obtain or access any government issued documents and services such as:

 

  • Vehicle Ownership Document
  • Address Registration and Card
  • Drivers License
  • Vehicle Registration Document
  • Change of Address

To be able to handle all the different types of requests at these new document registration offices a new front-end and back-end system was developed by Multipolaris. The system utilized the citizens’ data from the National Central Registry to process the different types of application requests. All the information is transferred from the National Central Registry to the document registration offices through the Multipolaris developed IT middle-ware solution that is then connected to the Multipolaris workstation applications which the front-office staff are using to process the citizens’ applications in real-time.

 

The modernization process also replaced the old hand written citizen ID card and passport with a newly developed polycarbonate ID card and polycarbonate data page passport. Multipolaris in cooperation with the Hungarian Bank Note company developed the new ID card and passport booklet solutions. The newly implemented electronic passport solution was also developed through this cooperation between Multipolaris and the Hungarian Bank Note company.

 

To personalize these new documents Multipolaris implemented 16 laser engraving machines at the central document personalization facility. All the IT software and hardware infrastructure and applications required to operate the new personalization center was developed and implemented by Multipolaris. In addition, Multipolaris contracted with the Hungarian Government to maintain and operate the personalization center for 10 years. Through this contract Multipolaris was able to obtain firsthand knowledge of the operation and management of the ID card and passport personalization system. This knowledge is the basis of the development of new innovative solutions which Multipolaris has implemented in an ongoing basis in this system as well as brought to the market for other customers around the world.

 

Through this ongoing innovation Multipolaris has been able to establish a system in Hungary which can physically deliver a new passport to the applicant within 4 business days of his application being accepted. In special rush cases, the passport can be delivered on the same day or worst case in 2 business days. This far exceeded the legal requirement for the Hungarian Government which was 30 days. Even though the process was significantly made faster by this innovation, the security of the process and the document itself was not compromised at all. To ensure this Multipolaris developed a system which secures and monitors as well as provides a detailed audit trail of all activity associated with the document through its entire lifecycle from blank stock to mailed personalized item. The information obtained by this audit trail is archived and can be retrieved for many years back.