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Strictly speaking, nothing! There is no single rule for numbering the identity document. That’s because each state has the autonomy to issue the RG – an acronym for «General Registration» – in the way it wants. In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for example, the RG follows the most common model in the country: eight digits plus a confirmation digit, the type 12 345 678-9. The difference between the two states is the body issuing the document: in São Paulo, it is the Secretariat of Public Security. In Rio, it’s the State Traffic Department. In Minas Gerais, the scheme is different: the eight digits continue, but there is no confirmation digit and the numbers are preceded by the acronym RGM, the “Registro Geral Mineiro”. This mess breeds oddities. As the system is not unified, it is possible for a person from Goiás to have an RG with the same number as a person from Ceará. Nor is it possible to say that the numbers indicate a sequence: with computerization in the 1990s, several states abandoned sequential counting. The result is that your RG can be the same as that of a countryman who has already died. The confusion is so great that a Brazilian who moves from Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul can have an RG in each state! To put an end to this zone, the government wants to unify the system for issuing IDs – as with the driver’s license, which is national. But that doesn’t have a deadline to happen.