Jordan grants legal status to Sanad digital ID as users pass 2.6M

Jordan’s Sanad digital identity app, which operates using iris biometrics from IrisGuard, now has full legal status. A report from the Jordan Times says it comes with publication of the amended Civil Status Law of 2026, which “explicitly recognises digital IDs issued through applications approved by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, granting them the same legal validity as physical national ID cards for all purposes under Jordanian law.”

Specifically, an amendment to Article 39 of the law dictates that digital ID is officially defined as “the electronic version of the national ID card and is legally accepted for all procedures and transactions covered by existing legislation.”

The piece quotes Sanad Director Mohammad Battikhi, who says that, “in simple terms, your digital ID on Sanad now carries the same legal authority as the physical civil status card in your pocket.”

According to Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, more than 2.6 million citizens have activated their digital identities through the Sanad app, with 600,000 of those  activated since the beginning of 2026. Adoption is driven partly by the introduction of a unified service model which includes a fully mobile digital identity issuance process, eliminating the need for users to visit a physical service station. But uptake is not much of a surprise, given that the amendments to the country’s civil status legislation make digital ID mandatory for access to public services.

In total, Sanad offers access to more than 500 online services – around 80 percent of the whole. Sanad users can remotely activate digital IDs, update phone numbers, reset passwords, enhance the display of digital documents, enable offline access to documents through fingerprint authentication, and link documents to related services.

Recent upgrades to the app added e-passport services, vehicle registration renewals, and digital signature services, and added payment support for Apple Pay and Google Pay alongside credit cards and direct transfers. In effect, it is Jordan’s version of the government wallet, and it is at the center of Jordan’s digital transformation efforts, which aim to position it as a digitalization leader in the Middle East.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital government  |  iris biometrics  |  IrisGuard  |  Jordan  |  Middle East  |  Sanad