Interpreting Guatemalan National ID Numbers

National identification codes often contain useful information that analysts can use for disambiguation, and thus to mitigate the presence of false positives. In the case of Guatemala, the country’s national ID number provides valuable personally identifiable information that can be useful to investigators.

Guatemala – National ID Number (Código Único de Identificación, CUI)

The Guatemalan National ID Number (Código Único de Identificación, CUI) is the official identification number issued to Guatemalan nationals and permanent residents. The CUI appears on the Personal Identification Document (Documento Personal de Identificación, DPI), which all Guatemalan nationals can obtain when they turn 18 years old. In other words, the DPI is the identification document itself, and the CUI is the number on that document.

The CUI comprises a 13-digit numeric code:

• The first eight digits (A) are randomly assigned numbers (número correlativo asignado).
• The ninth digit (B) is a checksum digit (dígito verificador). 
• The tenth and eleventh digits (C) comprise a two-digit code denoting the department of birth.
• The twelfth and thirteenth digits (D) comprise a two-digit code indicating the municipality of birth. A list of two-digit codes for departments and municipalities in Guatemala can be found here.

The resulting ID number is structured as follows:

AAAAAAAABCCDD

Note that for naturalized citizens and permanent residents, the last four digits correspond to the department and municipality where they registered for the DPI.

Watch Out for Discontinued ID Numbers

The CUI replaced the registry number from the Cédula de vecindad—a now-defunct personal ID—as Guatemala’s primary personal ID number in August 2013. The registry number from the Cédula de vecindad does not contain any analytical value; however, as it appears on older documents and as IDs used by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for several sanctioned Guatemalan nationals, it should not be confused with the CUI. This code varies in length, but always begins with an uppercase letter followed by a one to two-digit code indicating the department that issued the Cédula de vecindad.