Same Basic Characteristics as the U.S. Green Card

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.– LaserCard recently announced the receipt of a purchase order valued at more than $500,000 for highly secure optical memory-based Permanent Resident Cards to be issued by Costa Rica to its legal non-citizen residents. The card, which features custom artwork and security features, follows the layout of the U.S. Green Card and Border Crossing Card (BCC) and is designed to be interoperable with the optical memory-based border inspections systems implemented by the U.S. and Canadian governments. LaserCard has sold more than 25 million Green Cards and BCCs since 1997.

After an intensive investigation by the Costa Rica authorities, the LaserCard(R) was selected as the immigration ID card for the program. As the first Latin American country to implement an electronic ID card program, Costa Rica is on the forefront of continuing technological advancements in secure identification.

“We are pleased to announce our fourth national government instituting an ID program in the Americas, and the first in the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement region,” said Richard Haddock, CEO of LaserCard Corporation. “The fundamental requirement for security led the Costa Rican government to select optical memory, which has no known instance of compromise, making it unique among advanced card technologies.”

According to local press reports the card will replace various documents that identify different types of immigration status granted by the country. The card will have a five-year validity with annual renewals.

Shipments are expected to be completed by December 2005. The order was placed by a value-added reseller of LaserCard Corporation.

About LaserCard LaserCard Corporation (www.lasercard.com) manufactures and markets LaserCard optical memory cards, chip-ready OpticalSmart cards and other advanced-technology secure identification cards. The company has sold over 29 million, secure ID cards to meet the demanding requirements for border security, digital governance, and national identification in countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Italy and India. In addition, the Company manufactures optical card read/write drives and develops optical card system software, card-related data systems and peripherals. LaserCard Corporation, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., operates two wholly owned German subsidiaries: Challenge Card Design Plastikkarten GmbH, which manufactures advanced-technology cards; and cards & more GmbH, which markets cards, system solutions, and card personalization printers.