Milan speeds up ID card issuing with new automatic photo booths

No more scanning errors and lines in the civic service offices

Italians are already being issued electronic identity cards (CIE), equipped with contactless microchips and electronic signature capabilities, as well as increased security against identity theft. The Municipality of Milan, however, has also decided to do something about making the process of issuing said cards also more digital and ‘intelligent’.

For this purpose, at the start of this year, its civic registry offices have been equipped with fifteen automatic photo booths that not only take portrait shots but also automatically upload them to the system ready for document applications.

Raises the productivity of the civil servants, as well

Once the photo has been taken inside the booth, it is automatically uploaded in digital format to the computer system. The citizen also receives a printout on which, in addition to the photo, there is a code - both bar and alphanumeric - which is given to the operator at the registry service.

Once the citizen acquires this code, he or she can instantly download the corresponding digital photo from the server. The photo is sized and validated in accordance with the law and therefore immediately ready to be inserted in the document.

In practice, this process guarantees a speeding up of the CIE card issuing phase and safety in the use of the photo for the citizen. It eliminates the manual scanning, resizing and centring phase, which in turn boosts the productivity of the staff at the relevant municipal offices.

Gaia Romani, Milan’s councillor for civic and general services, explained that this also speeds the process and shortens waiting times considerably. Likewise, the automatic booths ensure standard quality, and they also comply with the validation criteria imposed by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) regulations, for passport-sized photos.