Info-guide

Your national identity card (NID) is not just a proof of your citizenship. It's one of those must-haves to open a bank account, to apply online for visa, to buy a mobile SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, transfer money abroad, import any material, buy a vehicle, basically in every case where you need to be verified as a legal Banglade-shi citizen. With the increasing security concerns of the country, the demand of NID as a viable document is spreading to more sectors.

This so very important document of yours can easily be lost- you might lose it for just being careless, you might forget where you kept it safely, or your purse might get stolen or mugged where you had wept your NID. If you forgetfully dropped it somewhere, you might get it back; given you are one of those luckiest people in the world. But once lost, chances are that you will never get your NID back and you must re-apply for your NID.

When you lose something as important as your NID, you might get tormented about where to start from, how to get it back and what if you never get it back! Relax but don't sit back. Retrieving your NID is a lengthy but simple process; you just have to be active and well informed. You take the responsibility of being active and let this article make you well informed.

If or when you lose your NID, the foremost thing to do is make a General Diary (GD) at a police station, conveniently at the nearest one. Sometimes the person in charge at the station might ask you to mention your NID number, but if you do not have it in record, you don't have to mention it in your GD.

The next thing to do is collecting your NID number. If you have used your NID to buy a SIM card or anything before, you could go to those places, provide them with the purchase documentation and collect your NID number from them. Or, you can go to the Zilla Election Commission at Agargaon and collect the number. At the Zilla Election Commission, you will have to provide the upazilla/thana name you registered from, suppose from Cantonment or Mohammadpur, and the officials will go through the corresponding record book and provide you with your NID number. If you registered with your family members, it is likely that your NID number will be close to theirs. So it will be convenient and less time consuming if you provide the officials with any of the NID numbers of a family member of yours. But next time, when you get your NID, make a photocopy of it, save the NID number properly, so that even if you lose it again, retrieving the NID number will not be such a tough thing to do.

After collecting your NID number you will have to go to the Issuance of National Identity (ID) Cards Project with your NID number and the GD copy. The office is on the sixth floor of the Islamic Foundation in Agargaon. You will be provided with a form where you have to fill in some basic information like name, address, NID number and signature. Submit the form to the EC office and collect the memo with a delivery date. Usually the office takes five working days before handing you your NID. Do collect the NID on the given date because collecting it on any date later would be problematic and much more time consuming.

You will have to go to the Islamic Foundation twice for this purpose, once for submitting the application and again for collecting the NID. On both days, make sure you have enough time in hand because the queues are always pretty long and yes there is not just one queue you have to stand in. You will have to stand on a line for getting into the lift, then you have to stand on a queue for collecting your NID or submitting the application or collecting the application form.

Sounds boring, tiring and annoying? The process surely is but when you lose something as precious, you have to pay a good price for it and in this case it's your time and energy. So next time, keep your national ID safely, make a photocopy of it and if possible, scan both sides of the card and save it in your computer.

P.S. For the residents outside the Dhaka Zilla, NID number collection, application submission and new NID reception would be done at the respective zilla election commission.