Civil Registry and Identification Service of Chile

The Civil Registry and Identification Service (SRCEI), sometimes simply referred to as the Civil Registry, is a decentralized public service in Chile, with its own legal personality and assets, under the supervision of the President of the Republic through the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.^[2] It is responsible for maintaining records related to the civil status of individuals and other duties assigned by law. Since December 2022, the organization has been headed by Omar Morales Márquez, under the government of President Gabriel Boric.

Civil Registry and Identification Service

Government Logo.
Central offices of the Civil Registry in Santiago.
Civil registry overview
Formed	July 17, 1884 (1884-07-17)
Preceding Civil registry	Civil Registry of Chile (1884-1943)
Jurisdiction	Chile
Headquarters	Catedral 1772, Santiago, Chile
Employees	3103 (2022)
Annual budget	155 860 810 thousand Chilean pesos (2020)[1]
Civil registry executive	Omar Morales Márquez
Parent department	Ministry of Justice and Human Rights
Child Civil registry	See Registers
Website	https://www.registrocivil.cl/

Its tasks include issuing birth certificates, marriage and civil union certificates, death certificates, criminal records, identity cards, passports, Unique Key, vehicle registrations, and inheritance probate for intestate succession.^[3]

To carry out its duties, the Civil Registry and Identification Service operates 16 regional offices,^[4] 476 offices and sub-offices, 300 self-service kiosks, 95 mobile service units, and a maritime office, known as Civilsur. It employs approximately 3,100 staff members.^[3]

History

Since the Colonial Chile era, personal identification was carried out through ecclesiastical records (such as baptismal, marriage, and death certificates) of the Catholic Church, which remained the state religion until 1925. On July 17, 1884, President of the Republic Domingo Santa María enacted the Civil Registry Law,^[5] as part of the secular laws, establishing a Civil Registry official responsible for maintaining duplicate records of births, marriages, and deaths.^[6]

With the evolving role of the State in economic, social, political, and cultural matters, the Civil Registry had to assume new functions of great importance to society. An example of this is the creation of the "General Registry of Convictions" in 1925, which was linked to identification, to establish the legal individuality of people and record their criminal history.^[3]

Decree Law 26, published on November 18, 1924, established the mandatory personal identification service, creating the identity card, which became mandatory for all citizens.^[7]

On August 28, 1930, the "Civil Registry Service" was organized, absorbing the tasks of the "Identification and Passport Service" in 1943,^[6] which until then had been under the responsibility of the Investigations Police (PDI).^[3]

Starting in 1980, the use of computer equipment was introduced, and later, in the 1990s, the incorporation of technology, process redesign, and the acceleration of procedures were promoted, resulting in reduced processing times and a clear orientation towards user satisfaction.^[3]

Since then, the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, the establishment of an extensive computer network linking offices, and the development of modern service systems have made the advances of the Service a model to follow for similar institutions in Latin America.^[3]

In 2017, the first self-service kiosks of the Civil Registry were inaugurated in high-traffic public locations where certificates are needed, such as town halls and hospitals across Chile, in line with the policies of automation and modernization of the public sector, implementing digital government initiatives.^[8]

Registers

The Civil Registry and Identification Service is responsible for the following twenty-two registers:^[9]

• Birth Register (1884)
• Marriage Register (1884)
• Death Register (1884)
• General Register of Convictions (1925)
• Identity Card (1943)
• Passport Register (1943)
• Register of Professionals (1981)
• National Register of Motor Vehicles (1985)
• National Register of Motor Vehicle Drivers (1985)
• National Register of the Disability (1994)
• National Register of Domestic Violence (1994)
• Special Register of Offenses related to Drug Consumption and Psychotropic Substances (1995)
• Register of Personal Data Banks managed by Public Bodies (1999)
• National Register of Land Freight Transport (2003)
• National Register of Probate (2003)
• National Register of Wills (2003)
• National DNA Register System (2004)
• National Register of Non-Profit Legal Entities (2011)
• Register of Non-Possessory Pledges (2011)
• Register of persons prohibited from working with minors (2012)^{[note 1]}
• National Non-Donors Register (2013)
• Special Register of Civil Union Agreements (2015)
• National Register of Child Support Debtors (2022)^[11]

National Directors

Director	Party	Start	End	President
Hernán Díaz Arrieta[12]	Ind.	1925	¿?	Arturo Alessandri Palma
		1925	1927	Emiliano Figueroa Larraín
		1927	1931	Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
Fernando Jaramillo Valderrama	LP	December 4, 1931	June 4, 1932	Juan Esteban Montero
		December 24, 1932	December 24, 1938	Arturo Alessandri Palma
		December 24, 1938	1939	Pedro Aguirre Cerda
Luis Felipe Laso Pérez Cotapos	RP	1939	November 25, 1941
		November 25, 1941	April 2, 1942	Jerónimo Méndez Arancibia
		April 2, 1942	1945	Juan Antonio Ríos
Luis Alberto Cuevas Contreras		1945	June 27, 1946
Washington Bannen Mujica		June 27, 1946	1947	Gabriel González Videla
Desiderio Bravo Ortiz		1947	1952
		November 3, 1952	1953	Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
Luis Ignacio Pérez Labra		1953	1953
Fernando Sergio Montaldo Bustos	Ind.	1953	November 3, 1958
		November 3, 1958	November 3, 1964	Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
		November 3, 1964	1965	Eduardo Frei Montalva
Jorge Zapata Santos	PDC	1965	November 3, 1970
		November 3, 1970	1971	Salvador Allende Gossens
Heriberto Benquis Camhi	PS	1971	September 11, 1973
Desiderio Herrera González	Ind.	September 12, 1973	1973	Augusto Pinochet Ugarte
Luis Henríquez Valenzuela		1974	1978
José Bernales Pereira		1978	1980
Juan Bennett Urrutia		February 1980	June 1982
Luis Larroulet Ganderats		1982	1985
Enrique Tornero Figueroa		1985	1990
Berta Belmar Ruiz	PDC	March 11, 1990	March 11, 1994	Patricio Aylwin Azócar
		March 11, 1994	1997	Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
María Alejandra Sepúlveda Toro	PS	1997	March 11, 2000
		March 11, 2000	2003	Ricardo Lagos Escobar
Aldo Signorelli Guerra	PRSD[13]	2004	March 11, 2006
Guillermo Arenas Escudero	PPD	March 11, 2006	2008	Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Christian Behm Sepúlveda	Ind.	March 1, 2009[14]	March 11, 2010
		March 11, 2010	January 1, 2011[14]	Sebastián Piñera Echenique
Rodrigo Durán López		May 25, 2011[15]	October 11, 2013
Claudia Gallardo Latsague		October 11, 2013[16]	August 7, 2014[16]
Teresa Alanis Zuleta		August 21, 2014[note 2]	October 23, 2015[18]	Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Luis Acevedo Quintanilla	PDC	October 23, 2015[19]	October 24, 2016[20]
Jorge Álvarez Vásquez	Ind.	October 24, 2016[20]	March 11, 2018
		March 11, 2018	October 16, 2020[21]	Sebastián Piñera Echenique
Sergio Mierzejewski Lafferte		June 11, 2021[note 3]	March 11, 2022
		March 11, 2022	March 22, 2022	Gabriel Boric Font
Jorge Núñez Silva (s)		March 22, 2022	December 13, 2022
Omar Morales Márquez	PR	December 13, 2022	Incumbent

Non-profit organizations

The Register of Non-Profit Legal Entities in Chile is a mandatory and centralized registration system, managed by the Civil Registry and Identification Service, aimed at formalizing associations, foundations, community organizations, neighborhood councils, and communal unions that do not seek profit.

The entities that must register in this system are divided into two main categories: those constituted under Title XXXIII of Book I of the Civil Code, such as corporations and foundations, and those governed by special laws, such as sports, religious, indigenous organizations, and some educational institutions that become non-profit legal entities.^[23]

Registration Process

Since 2023, the registration of new entities, as well as the modification of statutes and dissolutions, is carried out through the Municipal Secretariats corresponding to the entity's domicile. Once the procedure is completed in the Municipal Secretariat, it is responsible for sending the information to the Civil Registry, where the final registration in the national register is carried out.

Requirements and Documentation

To complete the registration, various documents are required, including the registration form, a copy of the founding documents of the act, and in some cases, express authorization issued by the entity's constitutive body. These requirements vary depending on the type of organization and the nature of the procedure (registration, board modification, etc.).^[24]

Obligations and Benefits

Once registered, non-profit legal entities acquire a series of obligations, including the regular updating of their information in the register and compliance with accounting and tax regulations. In return, these organizations can access various benefits, such as the ability to receive tax-exempt donations, participate in public tenders, and apply for competitive funds.

See also

• Civil Registry

Notes

1. Also known as the "National Offenders Register".^[10]
2. Assumed as acting national director (s) on August 7, and was confirmed in the position on August 21.^[17]
3. Assumed as acting national director (s) on October 16, 2020,^[21] being confirmed in the position —as national director— by the Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hernán Larraín on June 11, 2021.^[22]