An identity document (also called a piece of identification or ID, or colloquially as one's 'papers') is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card (IC). Countries which do not have formal identity documents may require informal documents.
In the absence of a formal identity document, driving licences can be used in many countries as a method of proof of identity, although some countries do not accept driving licences for identification, often because in those countries they don't expire as documents and can be old and easily forged. Most countries accept passports as a form of identification.
Most countries have the rule that foreign citizens need to have their passport or occasionally a national identity card from their country available at any time if they do not have residence permit in the country.
Read more about Identity Document: Information Included in Identity Documents, History, Adoption of Identity Cards, National Policies
Famous quotes containing the words identity and/or document:
“Motion or change, and identity or rest, are the first and second secrets of nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... research is never completed ... Around the corner lurks another possibility of interview, another book to read, a courthouse to explore, a document to verify.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)