:)

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Note added at 5 mins (2006-03-03 03:40:30 GMT)
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or: Identity Card Number (holder)

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Note added at 10 mins (2006-03-03 03:45:16 GMT)
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or: Personal Identity Card Number Holder

Each card is identified by an "Identity Card Number" (or NRIC number), ... Also indicated on the front side of the card, are the holder's name, race, ...

Juan XXX, titular de la cédula de identidad 99 99 999 = holder of ID card number 99 99 999

En el contexto.

I've always translated it this way

It's an official document issued by the State in most Latin American countries.

I think bearer and holder convey the same meaning, but "bearer" is less prone to confusion. You may be the holder of a document but not the bearer thereof.

Me parece que todas las respuestas son aceptables; esta contribución tiene sólo carácter informativo, porque me parece interesante el artículo que copio a continuación.

Acostumbro traducir esto como “holder of identity card No./# Xxx”, aunque muchos colegas prefieren “bearer” en lugar de “holder”, y la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Caracas usa “identification card” en lugar de “identity card”

A continuación, fragmentos del artículo en Wikipedia:


An identity document is a piece of documentation designed to prove the identity of the person carrying it. Unlike other forms of documentation, which on-ly have a single purpose such as author-izing bank transfers or proving member-ship of a library, an identity document simply asserts the bearer's identity.

If an identity document is in the form of a small standard-sized card, such as an ISO 7810 card, it is called an identity card.
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Types of identity cards
Modern identity cards bear little resem-blance to the traditional "photograph on piece of cardboard" and are often hi-tech smartcards capable of being swiped and read by computer.

Where the identity card is issued by the State, it asserts a unique single civil identity for a person, thus defining that person's identity purely in relation to the State. New technologies allow identity cards to contain biometric information, such as photographs, face, hand or iris measurements, or fingerprints.

Other information typically present on the cards — or on the supporting data-base — includes full name, parents' names, address, profession, nationality in multinational states, blood type and Rhesus factor.
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Identity cards worldwide
According to Privacy International, as of 1996, around 100 countries had compulsory identity cards. They also stated that "virtually no common law country has a card".


Arguments for and against identity cards
Argumentation about identity cards is largely limited to anglo-saxonic common-law countries. In most coun-tries where an ID system is present, it is seen as a commonplace item that nobody argues about.

Especially in the USA and the United Kingdom, state-issued compulsory identity cards are a source of great controversy. Some people regard them as a gross infringement of privacy and civil liberties, whilst others regard them as uncontroversial.
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Note: As noted above, certain countries do not have national ID cards, but have other official documents that play the same role in practice (e.g. driver's license for the United States). While a country may not make it de jure compulsory to own or carry an identity document, it may be de facto strongly recommended to do so in order to facilitate certain procedures.

http://www.answers.com/topic/identity-document