Case Study: Costa Rica achieves secure, tamper-proof foreign resident ID issuance with HID Global's DIMEX card solution

Costa Rica - Customer Case Study

The government of Costa Rica faced significant challenges with illegal immigration and widespread counterfeiting of its paper-based foreign resident credentials. These insecure documents placed a heavy burden on the nation's social welfare system. To address this, Costa Rica's Directorate-General for Migration and Aliens partnered with vendor HID Global to implement a highly secure, tamper-proof identification system, specifying the need for counterfeit-resistant credentials with biometrics.

HID Global provided an end-to-end ID management solution centered on their LaserCard optical security media cards. The solution included secure data capture, biometric verification, and card issuance systems. The result was the successful launch of the DIMEX card program, which was delivered on budget and ahead of schedule. The system achieved a production yield in excess of 99% with zero downtime, dramatically enhancing security by creating a credential that is effectively impossible to counterfeit or fraudulently alter.

Costa Rica

Mario Zamora

Director of the Directorate-General for Migration and Aliens