UIDAI brings 300 entities on board offline Aadhaar verification network

300 entities onboarded in first nine months

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has brought 300 Offline Verification Seeking Entities on board since the service launched in January 2026, extending paperless Aadhaar verification to a growing list of hotels, hospitals, schools, colleges and consumer services. Users can now prove their identity without handing over photocopies of their Aadhaar card.

The Economic Times reported the onboarding count, calling it a significant expansion of the offline verification system across diverse sectors. The Times of India describes the practical effect: checking into a hotel, entering a hospital or verifying a gig worker’s identity can increasingly be done without submitting card photocopies.

The growth comes as the mAadhaar app nears 7.5 crore downloads, according to Swarajya, putting the paperless verification tool directly in users’ pockets.

How the process works

Offline verification entities collect an OTP or scan a QR code instead of taking a physical copy of the card, UIDAI’s process detailed by The Economic Times. A digital identity proof replaces the photocopied sheet. Users can verify identity without photocopies, the Economic Times noted, across hospitality, healthcare, education and consumer services.

The offline route matters where internet is patchy or where organisations don’t want to store citizens’ card copies. It gives users control over what gets shared, and it removes a common leak point for Aadhaar numbers and photos, which have circulated freely on WhatsApp groups and email chains for years.

Why UIDAI wants people off WhatsApp

UIDAI has asked citizens to stop sharing Aadhaar documents on WhatsApp and email, News18 reported, and to update card details only through the official Aadhaar portal or nearby Aadhaar centres. The plea sits alongside a fresh set of demographic update rules issued under the new SOP — stricter conditions on repeated date of birth changes and a rewritten process for name corrections, spanning minor corrections, data-entry errors, marriage or divorce-related changes and complete name changes, according to the Sunday Guardian and Free Press Journal.

New card design in the works

UIDAI is also preparing a new Aadhaar card design carrying only the holder’s photo and a QR code, India reported, part of a security push to stop misuse of card details printed on paper. The change would strip the card of its other printed fields and force verification through the QR code instead of visual inspection of the photocopied sheet.

What users can do now

For residents, the address update route runs both ways — online from home with documents, or offline at an Aadhaar centre, Mashable India reported. Name corrections follow the revised SOP’s document-based process and fee structure, jagranjosh.com detailed. The verification service itself keeps expanding as more entities complete onboarding.

UIDAI has not said when the next batch of entities will be announced or when the new card design will reach holders.