Can a public office in Peru demand a photocopy of your DNI?

What Decreto Legislativo 1246 says

Decreto Legislativo 1246, published on 10 November 2016, approved a package of administrative simplification measures. Its article 5, numeral 5.1, opens: «Las entidades de la Administración Pública están prohibidas de exigir a los administrados o usuarios, en el marco de un procedimiento o trámite administrativo, los siguientes documentos». The first item on the list, letter a), is «Copia del Documento Nacional de Identidad».

There is no nuance to hunt for. A public body, within an administrative procedure, may not demand the copy. It may ask you to show the DNI and check your details; that is what the document is for.

The same list forbids other habitual demands: birth certificates when you present a DNI (unless filiation must be proved), recent birth or death certificates in certain cases, notarised signatures unless a law requires them, a copy of the RUC, and in general any requirement the entity can verify online. Numeral 5.2 exempts entities in areas without internet coverage from letters e), f) and g); letter a) has no exception.

Who it reaches, and who it does not

Article 1 sets the scope: «todas las entidades de la Administración Pública comprendidas en el artículo I del Título Preliminar de la Ley N° 27444». That is the public administration; the decree says nothing about private parties.

What is not covered by this ban:

A «No» in this table means DL 1246 does not apply, not that the copy is unrestricted. What each of them may ask for is in Can a hotel, bank or phone company ask for a copy of your DNI?.

That DL 1246 does not reach a private business does not mean the business can do what it likes with your document. Physical retention of the DNI is forbidden to anyone by article 30 of Ley 26497; that is covered in Can they keep your ID card?. Copying or photographing it has a different limit: the Personal Data Protection Act does not allow processing more data than the purpose needs, and the authority has sanctioned 11 companies at least 13 times between 2022 and 2026 for photographing the DNI when showing it was enough. That is covered in DNI copies at private businesses.

Foreigners: what changes

Letter a) speaks of the DNI. If you hold a carné de extranjería, the literal ban does not name your document. What does reach you is the rest of the decree’s logic — the entity must verify what it can verify — and the complaint route to the Defensoría del Pueblo, which is open to «cualquier persona natural o jurídica… sin restricción alguna» (Ley 26520, art. 10). We say it as it is: for the carné de extranjería there is no sentence identical to letter a), and we are not going to invent one.

The complaint route: Defensoría del Pueblo

Ley 26520, the organic law of the Ombudsman, fits this problem exactly:

• Article 1: its role is to defend the constitutional and fundamental rights of the person «y supervisar el cumplimiento de los deberes de la administración pública y la prestación de los servicios públicos».
• Article 9.1: it may open, on its own initiative or on request, any investigation into the acts and decisions of the public administration.
• Article 10: «Podrá recurrir en queja ante el Defensor del Pueblo cualquier persona natural o jurídica, en forma individual o colectiva, sin restricción alguna.»
• Article 19: complaints «no estarán sujetas a ningún otro requisito de carácter formal o económico».

In practice: free, no lawyer, online, and open to foreigners. The complaint is not about a fine: it aims to get the entity to drop the requirement, and it leaves a record of the breach, which is usually enough for the counter to change its mind.

What to do on the day

Name the article, offer to show the DNI, ask for the refusal in writing if they insist. Do not lose the procedure over a photocopy: if you need it done that day, hand the copy over under protest, note the clerk’s name and the time, and complain afterwards. The reclamo in the entity’s complaints book and the queja to the Defensoría are the two routes that leave a trace.

ID documents and a minor’s travel

If the procedure you’re doing involves a minor’s DNI for travel, keep in mind that besides the ID document, travel permission may also be required. See when it’s needed in travel permission for minors in Peru.

Does your DNI have incorrect data on it?

If the issue isn’t being asked for a DNI copy but that your DNI itself has an error (a misspelled name, a wrong date), see how to request a correction of your data at RENIEC.