The new version of the CHI App has added a useful feature. If a family was registered separately by mistake, or temporarily, but is actually living in the same house, there's no need to create it again from scratch. You can now easily merge such families and members together.
When you open a Family Profile inside a house from the Premises list, you'll see two buttons at the top: Add Family and Import Family.
Two things are required for this:
If the data isn't synced, an on-screen message will ask you to sync all house data first, and the Import button won't work.
An important point that came up in practice: If the house details already show the "number of families" as one, and you increase it to two, the Import Family button temporarily disappears — only Add Family will be visible. To bring it back, first save the data, then sync it, and once you reopen the house, the Import Family button returns.
After tapping Import Family, a search box opens asking you to "Enter Head/Member CNIC (13 digits)." Here you enter the 13-digit CNIC of any member of that family and search.
After searching, the system tells you where that family is currently registered. The screen shows the Head's name, CNIC, and House Code, along with a list of the members.
At this point, there are two options:
After selecting, the system will ask you to enter a reason. Write a short reason in English, for example: "Merged separate families residing in the same House"
Finally, tapping Import Selected sends a request to add that family into this house.
This works exactly like importing a family, except it's done from inside a family, under Import Member.
Here too, you enter a CNIC to search for the member. When you select a member and move them into another family, they'll be added there as a member.
There are 3 special cases that are important to understand:
Case 1: If a wife is living with her children in a house, her relation is "Self," and there is no husband/Head in that house — when you import/transfer her, the system will tell you to bring her children along as well, because children cannot be left behind alone.
Case 2: If that wife is living alone, her relation is "Self," and you import her to a Head elsewhere who is also living alone, her relation will automatically change to "Wife" at the destination.
Case 3: If you're importing a wife into a family that already has a wife registered, she won't be added as a second wife within the same family. Instead, the system will automatically create a separate "Family 2" under the same Head. This means you'll see two families under that Head — one with the first wife, and one with the second wife.
This decision happens automatically, and it depends on the existing situation in the house you're bringing the member into.
After selecting a family and tapping Import Selected, the request doesn't combine instantly — it becomes a Transfer Request, which first shows up as "Pending."
To approve it:
After approval, this data needs to be synced again. As soon as the sync completes, the other family will be added into that house, and now you'll see two families in that house — the one that was already there, and the one you merged in.
🔗 Shareable link for this article 🌍 Pure English link (best for international sharing)This content is for general guidance, based on field experience. Please consult your focal person or supervisor for any authoritative decision related to the system.
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