Requirements for your first UK ID card
Do you live in the UK but never had a CitizenCard photo ID before? You will need to provide a suitable referee, who needs to confirm your identity.
To get your first UK ID card you must:
- be a UK resident (live in the United Kingdom)
- make a payment and submit your application
- provide a Route 1 or Route 2 referee (full details below)
- supply a passport quality photograph of yourself countersigned by your referee
- send your application together with all necessary documents to us.
There are two types of referees we accept - Route 1 and Route 2.
A Route 1 referee countersigns a copy of an official document confirming your identity e.g. a birth certificate or passport (full list of official documents we accept can be found below).
A Route 2 referee confirms your details against official records held at their place of work.
Your chosen referee must:
- be over 25 and in full time employment
- be contactable at their registered business address on their landline number (a non-mobile phone) during office hours i.e. Mon-Fri, 9.00 - 17.00 – we will definitely call them!
and they must not:
- be related to you by birth or marriage nor live with you
- be self-employed, sole traders or those working from home/residential address.
Route 1 referee - countersigns a copy of an official document confirming your identity
ROUTE 1 referees are professionals, who can countersign a copy of an official document confirming your identity as being true to the original. Check a list of permitted Route 1 referees to find out who can act as one.
If the referee knows you personally the countersigned document confirming your identity can be one of the following:
- birth certificate
- certified copy of a birth certificate
- NHS Medical Card
- CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) Check document
- European Health Insurance Card.
The following photographic ID documents can be used whether the referee knows you or not:
- passport
- UK photo driving licence
- EU National ID Card
- Home Office approved photo ID
- PASS card (bearing the PASS hologram).
You must show an original document confirming your identity to your referee, ask them to countersign a photocopy of it and post it to us together with your CitizenCard application. Please do not send original documents.
Additionally, if you have changed your name since birth and the document shows your old name, please show the original marriage certificate(s) or change of name deed(s) to your referee, ask them to countersign the photocopies and then send them to us together with the above.
Route 2 referee - confirms your details against their official records
Don’t have any official documents confirming your identity?
ROUTE 2 referees are professionals, who know you and can confirm your details against their official records held at their place of work. We only accept the following referees for the Route 2 process:
- your Doctor / Dentist / Nurse / Administrator at your GP / Dental Surgery
- your Teacher / Tutor / Head of Year / Administrator at your School / College / University
(please ensure they are available during academic holidays as they must be contactable at their place of work) - your Social Worker
- your Certified Solicitor
- a Bank / Building Society staff member at your branch
- your Prison or Probation Officer
- your Jobcentre Plus work coach
- if you are employed with any of the above Route 2 referees, they can verify your identity from their personnel records
- if you are employed by a Local Authority, your employer can verify your identity from their personnel records
