What is the Legal Age for the Moroccan National Identity Card (CNIE)?

The issue of the legal age for obtaining the Moroccan National Identity Card (CNIE: Carte Nationale d'Identité Électronique) raises numerous questions among citizens. Therefore, we decided to clarify this topic based on established law and its latest regulatory updates.

In reality, the legal age to issue the Moroccan ID card varies depending on specific legal conditions, as we will detail below.

Age for Issuing the Moroccan National Identity Card 

1. The Optional Age to Apply for the Moroccan National Identity Card

The law regulating the national electronic identity card specifies the age at which a Moroccan citizen can apply for and be issued the card, setting it at under 16 years of age.

In other words, any minor under the age of 16 can, optionally, obtain the national ID card upon the formal request of their legal guardian.

However, if a minor obtains the card before reaching 12 full solar years, reaching this specific age triggers a mandatory condition for renewal. Consequently, they must apply to renew their electronic ID card (through their legal guardian); failure to do so subjects them to a statutory financial penalty, which the legal guardian is legally responsible for paying.

2. The Mandatory Legal Age for the ID Card in Morocco

While the legal age of majority in Morocco is 18 full solar years (the age at which an individual attains full legal capacity), the national ID card law has strictly set the mandatory age for every Moroccan citizen to obtain the ID card at 16 full solar years.

Thus, a minor who has completed 16 solar years is legally obligated to possess the Moroccan national identity card (or, at the very least, a receipt proving the application has been submitted). If it is proven that they have neglected to apply for it, they are subject to a specific fine prescribed for this offense, which must be paid by their legal guardian.

This covers everything regarding this legal matter.

⸺ If you have any opinions or inquiries regarding this topic, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Sources: ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ 

• Law No. 04.20 relating to the National Electronic Identity Card, promulgated by Dahir No. 1.20.80 on 18 Dhu al-Hijjah 1441 (August 8, 2020). (This repeals the provisions of Law No. 35.06 creating the National Electronic Identity Card, promulgated by Dahir No. 1.07.149 on 19 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1428 - November 30, 2007).
• Decree No. 2.20.521 issued on 22 Dhu al-Hijjah 1441 (August 12, 2020) implementing the provisions of Law No. 04.20 relating to the National Electronic Identity Card. (This repeals Decree No. 2.06.478 issued on 14 Dhu al-Hijjah 1428 - December 25, 2007 - implementing Law No. 35.06).

Achraf Lamine Legal Researcher and Master of Laws (LL.M.) holder, specializing in the analysis of legislative texts and judicial precedents. I dedicate my expertise at "Arable Law Hub" to simplifying legal culture and making it accessible to everyone, driven by the conviction that legal awareness is the fundamental cornerstone of the rule of law.
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