On 30 January, Argentina announced the issuance of a new passport and identity card, introducing updated security architecture and materials.

S. Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has issued its first electronic ID card carrying a Khoi-San traditional name that uses the click character ‘!’. The card was handed to Stellenbosch student !Khūboab Oedasoua Lawrence, after his family spent 18 years trying to obtain documents that reflected the correct spelling of his name.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior has outlined a significant expansion of cooperation with the European Union (EU) on border management and migration governance following high-level talks in Abuja on 4 February 2026.

During the annual CLARCIEV meeting, held in October 2025 in San Salvador, ID & Secure Document News™ sat down with Fernando Velasco Aguirre, President and National Registrar of the Registro Nacional de Personas Naturales (RNPN) of El Salvador, to learn more about his vision for identity in the country as well as the region as a whole. Among other achievements, Mr Velasco led and implemented the current design of the Salvadoran identity card (Documento Único de Identidad – DUI), both within El Salvador and abroad.

The annual Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards, a highlight of the High Security Printing™ EMEA conference, took place in Rabat, Morocco on 10 February 2026. The event brought together government ministries, national identity authorities and technology providers from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to recognise outstanding achievements in design, security and technology innovation in identity documents.

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun 2026 by pushing further into automated biometric identity verification – while its trusted traveller programme, Global Entry, has been temporarily suspended amid the latest US partial government shutdown.

Over the past few years, debates around civil identity have regularly predicted the demise of physical documents and their inevitable replacement by the massive investment of tech giants in digital, and then virtual ID. I think something else is going on.

A misconfigured cloud storage environment linked to Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) left scans of 700 passports and state ID cards belonging to high-profile delegates publicly accessible after the December 2025 event. The platform, created for event registration and VIP accreditation, was not protected by authentication and was indexable using standard search techniques.

Nigeria Ministry of Interior has outlined a significant expansion of cooperation with the European Union (EU) on border management and migration governance following high-level talks in Abuja on 4 February 2026.

Thales has been selected by Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to deliver new state identification cards and driving licences, alongside a wider set of enrolment and issuance capabilities. The programme will upgrade both document security and operational workflow across DMV locations.

Latin America’s long-standing ambition to enable cross-border use of national digital identities is entering a more concrete phase.

De La Rue has entered into a strategic joint venture with Canadian Bank Note (CBN) to bid for the next generation of British passports, with the aim of returning booklet manufacture to the UK after roughly a decade of production in Poland under Thales DIS (formerly Gemalto). Personalisation of British passports is already carried out in the UK.

The UK government announced a new national digital ID scheme in September 2025, framed as a way to modernise access to public services and tighten right-to-work controls. Since then, policy and delivery plans have shifted several times. Now, we take a further look at changes in governance, scope and possible expansion of the scheme.

As part of a research initiative led by Reconnaissance International, a recent industry survey set out to define the elusive ‘WOW factor’ in holographic security features.

From 1 February 2026, US domestic air passengers who arrive at airport security without a REAL ID-compliant licence or other accepted identification will be routed into ‘TSA ConfirmID’, an alternative identity-verification process carrying a $45 fee.

ODDS 2027 (25-27 January, Berlin) invites original research and technical solutions across optical features, materials, biometrics, cryptography, machine-readable data, and integrated systems that secure government-issued documents and identities. As the definitive forum for unveiling new breakthroughs, ODDS brings together industry, academia, and government to advance security in both physical and digital domains.

Alice Vermeulin is Director of Innovation and R&D at TOPPAN Security, where she leads the development of next-generation secure credential technologies. With an engineering background in the graphic industries and experience spanning Europe and North America, she specialises in security solutions for identity and payment systems, covering product development roadmaps, card and passport manufacturing processes, qualification testing and standards, and intellectual property strategy.

Brunei’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) and Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC) have introduced Brunei Identity Digital (BruneiID), a national digital identity designed to provide single-login access to selected government digital services.

Belize has received approximately $250,000 in biometric equipment from the US under a new Biometric Data Sharing Partnership (BDSP) with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The package includes fingerprint-based enrolment systems and document readers at Belize’s international airport and major land border crossings, enabling officers to capture biometric identifiers and query DHS identity databases in real time.

This time last year I predicted that 2025 would bring an acquisition wave reshaping the industry, and 2026 is now showing the effect of this.