Jordan’s cabinet has approved draft amendments that would give digital identity formal legal standing alongside the country’s physical national ID card and require both government bodies and private institutions to accept it. The proposal is part of a wider package sent forward for parliamentary consideration, but for the identity market the main signal is clear: Jordan wants digital identity to function as an official credential, not just as a convenience layer inside a mobile app.
The cabinet approved amendments to the Civil Status Law that would recognize digital identity issued through the state’s framework as an official form of identification alongside the card issued by the Civil Status and Passports Department. The same package would also create a free digital mailbox for every citizen, resident and establishment through the Sanad app, allowing official notifications and postal correspondence to be delivered through the country’s digital identity infrastructure.
The move builds on Jordan’s earlier adoption of Sanad digital ID for banking identity verification across all banks and follows its work to update the Sanad app with instant digital identity activation. What changes here is the legal footing. If parliament passes the amendments, institutions across the economy would be expected to accept digital identity in the same way they accept the physical national card, moving the credential into a broader set of real-world interactions.
The cabinet paired the identity changes with draft amendments to the Traffic Law that would allow vehicle sale and purchase transactions to be completed fully online using electronic signatures and remote authentication by notaries at the licensing department. Buyers would place funds in a special account at the department, with payment released to the seller once the transfer is completed. That matters because it shows digital identity policy being linked directly to higher-value transactions rather than being discussed only in abstract digital-government terms.
The package still needs to move through the House of Representatives, so the rules are not final. Even so, the cabinet decision is a substantive policy step. It suggests Jordan is trying to turn digital identity into a generally recognized credential across public services and commercial workflows, while also tying it to concrete online transactions where trust, authentication and legally valid records need to work together.
Sources: Jordan News Agency (Petra)
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By Ali Nassar-Smith
