# Best practice to handle ID / National ID search **URL:** \ **Category:** Support & Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223 "2025-12-01T13:26:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![innoac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@innoac](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/innoac)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/1 "2025-12-01T13:26:37Z")
Three quick clarifications: 1. IDs are returned without special characters (e.g., HKID A808080(9) → A8080809). → Should we send both raw and cleaned versions, or do you normalize automatically? 2. Many PEP records have no ID stored (e.g., Li Ka-shing). When we search name + ID, the record disappears. → Best practice: treat ID as optional and always fall back to name match? 3. What exactly is the difference between “ID” and “National ID” in your data? ---
**Author:** ![pudo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex014/user_avatar/discuss.opensanctions.org/pudo/32/1_2.png) [@pudo](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/pudo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/2 "2025-12-02T13:35:54Z")
Hi @innoac, we have two categories of identifiers in the data: those with a well-understood format (eg: `swiftBic`, `ogrnCode`, `innCode`, `uscCode`, `leiCode`) and more generic fields for identifiers whose format we do not have specific handling instructions for (eg.: `registrationNumber`, `idNumber`, `taxNumber` ). We do minimal normalization when we compare these, so it’s a bit more of a matter of luck than I’d really like. For PEP screening in particular, we very very rarely have IDs from the data source - so I think putting them into the request mostly makes sense in a sanctions screening use case. Finally, there’s the entity ID itself - which is something we generate and manage, not a property of the person. See [https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/identifiers/](https://www.opensanctions.org/docs/identifiers/) for more info. Best, - Friedrich ---
**Author:** ![innoac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@innoac](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/innoac)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/3 "2026-04-17T09:51:26Z")
I have a follow-up regarding data matching: Sanction records typically include formal IDs, whereas PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) records often do not. Given this discrepancy, if an end-user searches using both an **ID and a Name** , should I search Sanction records by ID and PEP records by Name separately? What is the industry best practice for handling these divergent search criteria? ---
**Author:** ![innoac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@innoac](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/innoac)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 9:52am UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/4 "2026-04-17T09:52:07Z")
Should I raise this as a new question? ---
**Author:** ![pudo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex014/user_avatar/discuss.opensanctions.org/pudo/32/1_2.png) [@pudo](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/pudo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/5 "2026-04-17T13:30:46Z")
I assume by ID you mean something like taxpayer, passport or national registration numbers? In that case, I’d really just go for: **more is more**. If you have any of them in your records, include them in the query. There’s really no reason I can think of not to throw such detail into the ring and see if it can help make a match. The problem we’ve discovered underneath: identifiers are great ways to make a positive match, but often much less suitable to qualify/discount one. For example, I think I have four or five different tax IDs between me and the German government right now. If you included one of those in a query to identify me in a watchlist and got a match, that would be strong evidence. But if the watchlist linked me to a different ID and you used that difference to discard the match, that’d be a mistake. We see this in many countries - very few actually manage to have strong identifiers for companies and people (and often this is a political decision). ---
**Author:** ![innoac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/43a26b/32.png) [@innoac](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/u/innoac)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://discuss.opensanctions.org/t/best-practice-to-handle-id-national-id-search/223/6 "2026-04-17T13:54:03Z")
Thank you for the prompt reply. I want to clarify my understanding of the search logic. If I search using both a Name and an ID (e.g., Passport Number), the system applies an ‘AND’ condition. This means if the database contains a matching name but lacks the specific ID number, which is common for many PEP records, the search will return ‘Not Found.’ This is why I am asking if it is better to perform two separate searches: one using both the Name and ID, and another using the Name only. This would ensure that I catch records even when the ID is missing from the source data. In this case, the cost for searching will be increased - 1 search vs 2 searches. Or is there a way I can apply “OR” condition i.e. Make ID as optional for searching?