Information and eGovernment Authority

Allow 24 hours for the FSSO trust store to refresh after a biometric upgrade. If still failing after 24 hours, log out fully from all sessions, clear browser cookies for bahrain.bh and sijilat.bh, and retry. If still failing, call the iGA helpline at 80008001 and ask them to force-refresh the federated session.

Address changes propagate to courier targets in 24-72 hours depending on the issuing ministry. If a document was dispatched before propagation, it carries the old address. Track the courier and request redirect through the courier (Aramex/Bahrain Post) rather than refile through iGA.

MyGov caches identity attributes and refreshes on app open. Pull-to-refresh on the relevant screen, or sign out and back in. If a value is genuinely different (not stale cache), the bahrain.bh web view is authoritative and the MyGov view will catch up within an hour.

iGA releases new slot batches on weekday mornings around 07:00 Bahrain time. Open the booking screen at that hour for the best availability. For urgent cases, walk into Isa Town or Seef Mall and request a same-day slot; centres hold a small daily reserve for walk-ins.

Tenders are listed on iGA's Suppliers page on iga.gov.bh but also routinely published on the Bahrain Tender Board portal. Vendor registration runs through the Tender Board first; iGA-specific RFPs link out from there.

Datasets are refreshed on the schedule the source ministry publishes; some are quarterly, some annual. Check the dataset metadata for the refresh cadence. For broken links, email the data.gov.bh feedback address listed at the bottom of the dataset page; iGA's data team triages within a few working days.

Use bahrain.bh or the MyGov app for actual transactions (fines, CPR, residence, attestation, traffic). Use iga.gov.bh only for booking a video customer-support appointment, reading official service guides, following iGA news, or vendor/tender activity. iga.gov.bh is not a consumer transaction portal.

Three causes account for almost all eKey login failures. First, the mobile number registered against your CPR is outdated or the SIM was deactivated by your operator for non-use, so the OTP never arrives; the fix is an in-person rebinding at any iGA centre. Second, you are trying to use a service that requires the advanced biometric tier but you only have standard tier; upgrade once at an iGA centre and the issue disappears across all services. Third, your password is correct but your account is temporarily locked after multiple failed attempts; wait 30 minutes or use the eKey 2.0 app's recovery flow which uses CPR-linked biometrics rather than SMS OTP.

Book a slot at any iGA centre (Isa Town, Seef Mall, Hidd) via bahrain.bh or MyGov, bring the original CPR card, and complete the in-person biometric capture (fingerprint, facial image, signature) in one session. The upgrade is permanent and works across all 300+ integrated services thereafter, including federated SSO into Sijilat and NBR.

Yes. Address change is free and can be filed on bahrain.bh or in MyGov in under five minutes with eKey. Crucially, it must happen within 14 days of moving; otherwise an administrative fine accrues and compounds at each subsequent CPR renewal. Update the address as soon as you sign a new tenancy.

iga.gov.bh offers a remote video-call appointment with an iGA representative for Civil Affairs and identity cases. Use it when an in-person visit would otherwise be required (accessibility, mobility, geography), when a digital flow has a state that the self-service portal cannot resolve (eKey rebinding when the mobile is no longer reachable, certificate corrections, complex address disputes), or when you simply prefer not to queue at a centre. Available Sunday-Thursday in working hours.

iGA's Federated Single Sign-On standard lets one advanced eKey session flow across bahrain.bh, Sijilat for commercial registration, the National Bureau for Revenue for VAT, the LMRA establishment portal and selected bank onboarding flows without re-authenticating. The catch is that FSSO requires biometric-tier eKey; standard-tier holders see the SSO link but the cross-portal session aborts. Corporate finance teams should standardise on advanced eKey for every user who touches multiple portals.

iGA has multiple service centres: Isa Town (main authority headquarters and busiest centre), Seef Mall (most convenient for residents in the western suburbs), and Hidd (eastern coverage). All three handle CPR card services, biometric eKey upgrades and walk-in support. Isa Town is least busy on Monday mornings; Seef Mall is busiest on Thursdays and around lunchtime.

MyGov is the current consumer application from iGA and supersedes earlier eGovernment app releases (also known as Bahrain ID app or Smart Pass in older marketing). All share the same eKey identity backend, so a login in any client carries across to bahrain.bh on the web. Install MyGov as the {year} default and let earlier apps retire.

data.gov.bh is iGA's national open-data marketplace covering demographics, economy, health, education, environment and government-performance datasets. Datasets are downloadable as CSV/JSON and many are exposed via API. Companies use the data for market sizing, investor pitches, tender responses and academic research. It is not a transactional portal and does not host residence, CPR or fine services.

The iGA customer service helpline is 80008001 (Sunday-Thursday in working hours). For specific ministry services (NPRA residence, GDT fines, MOH appointments) the front-line helpline of that ministry can resolve domain issues, but identity, eKey, federated SSO and payment-routing issues are iGA-layer and the iGA helpline is the correct escalation.

eKey is issued to individuals against the CPR; there is no separate corporate eKey. Corporate workflows work by binding individual eKeys with appropriate authorisations against the establishment record on Sijilat, LMRA and NBR. Every corporate user (CEO, CFO, HR officer, accountant) needs their own advanced-tier eKey, and the authorisations are managed at each ministry portal rather than at iGA.

iGA operates the platforms that surface these services but the policy and case-management lives with NPRA for residence and LMRA for work permits. For a visa question, go to NPRA or use the bahrain.bh visa-status service; for a work permit question, go to LMRA. iGA escalation is the right path only when the issue is identity, OTP, federated session or platform-level.

No. eKey registration is free, the advanced biometric upgrade is free, MyGov is a free download on iOS and Android, and access to bahrain.bh is free. Only the underlying government fees for specific services (CPR renewal, MOFA attestation, GDT licence) apply, and BenefitPay or card payments on the portals carry no additional consumer handling charge.