Canada Provincial ID Card PDF417 Barcode API

Canadian Records Differ in Small but Important Ways

Canadian jurisdictions that follow the AAMVA card standard print a PDF417 barcode on the back of licences and many provincial photo ID cards. The records use year-first dates, six-character postal codes, metric heights, and the CAN country code. A parser tuned only to US samples can misread dates or postal codes and silently store wrong values.

Normalized Output for Canadian Cards

Send the card back to the PDF417 API. StructOCR parses the AAMVA DL/ID record, normalizes dates to YYYY-MM-DD whichever order the issuer used, keeps postal codes as encoded, and returns document_kind so ID cards are not mistaken for licences. Cards without an AAMVA barcode return a clear 422 error instead of guessed fields.

Where ID Card Barcodes Show Up

• Cross-border onboarding: Serve US and Canadian customers with one integration and one JSON schema.
• Age-gated sales: Read date of birth from provincial ID cards and licences at cannabis and alcohol retail.
• Rental and travel: Use document_kind to require a licence for vehicle rental while accepting ID cards for other check-ins.

Decode a Canadian Card Back

Upload a JPG, PNG, or WebP image with the full barcode visible. Check country_code and document_kind in the response.

Prerequisite: A server-side StructOCR API key and a clear image of the complete card back

curl -X POST https://api.structocr.com/v1/driver-license-pdf417 \
  -H "x-api-key: $STRUCTOCR_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@provincial-id-back.jpg"

Illustrative Canadian ID Card Response

This response uses wholly fictional data. Available optional elements depend on what the issuing province encodes.

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "type": "drivers_license",
    "document_kind": "id_card",
    "source": "pdf417",
    "country_code": "CAN",
    "region": "AB",
    "document_number": "SAMPLEID123",
    "surname": "SAMPLE",
    "given_names": "ALEX MORGAN",
    "first_name": "ALEX",
    "middle_name": "MORGAN",
    "name_suffix": null,
    "sex": "F",
    "date_of_birth": "1990-01-15",
    "date_of_issue": "2025-01-15",
    "date_of_expiry": "2033-01-15",
    "address": "100 EXAMPLE AVE",
    "city": "SAMPLE CITY",
    "postal_code": "T5J 0A1",
    "vehicle_class": null,
    "restrictions": null,
    "endorsements": null,
    "height": null,
    "eye_color": null,
    "document_discriminator": "SAMPLE-DISCRIMINATOR",
    "issuer_identification_number": "636000",
    "aamva_version": 10,
    "jurisdiction_version": 0
  }
}