Reading the eID card

Typing an identity is where a NISS gets a transposed digit. Reading the Belgian eID card fills in the identity from the chip itself.

Before the first reading

On each workstation that reads cards:

  • a card reader, and the Belgian eID middleware (the official eID software);

  • the eID reader program of WideCare, which runs on Windows only.

When the reader does not answer, WideCare says so and offers Install the eID reader on this computer. Download it, double-click it: it installs for your Windows user, with no administrator rights. Then click Read eID Card again.

The reader checks where the card goes

The first time it sends a card to a server, the reader asks you whether that server may receive it, then remembers your answer. Outside your own workstation it only sends to a secure (https) address. A web page cannot divert the identity, the photo or a signature from the card.

On an admission request

  1. Insert the card in the reader.

  2. Open the admission request and click Read eID Card in its header.

  3. Wait for the message: reading takes up to 30 seconds.

The card fills in the candidate behind the request — never the relative who enquires — and the request takes the name read from the chip. The NISS, the date of birth, the gender, the nationality, the place of birth and the card shown on the request take the card’s values. Each change is tracked in the request’s thread, in the name of the user who clicked.

If you start a new reading while a previous one is still waiting, the previous one stops: no forgotten “please wait”.

See Admitting a resident in Belgium.

On a resident’s or a contact’s record

Read eID Card, in the header of the record, updates that person from the card: identity, NISS, address and photo.

The eID Card tab of the record keeps:

  • eID Card Number and eID Chip Number;

  • eID Valid From and eID Valid Until;

  • Place of Birth.

The NISS identifies the person for life; the card number identifies the card, which expires and is renewed.

Creating a contact from a card

Contacts → New Partner via eID reads the card and opens the person: found by NISS when they already exist in the company, created otherwise.

What’s next