سواء كانت الوثيقة جواز السفر أم بطاقة الهوية، سأسلمها.

It is a very common pattern meaning whether ... or ... or regardless of whether ... or ....

So:

• سواء كانت الوثيقة جواز السفر أم بطاقة الهوية means
• whether the document is the passport or the ID card

The main idea is that the result does not change: no matter which of the two alternatives is true, سأسلمها still happens.

After سواء, standard Arabic normally uses أم to introduce the second alternative.

So the fixed pattern is usually:

• سواء ... أم ...

not:

• سواء ... أو ...

Very roughly:

• أو is the ordinary everyday or
• أم often appears in paired alternatives, especially in structures like سواء ... أم ...

So here أم is the expected choice.

This is a very common learner question.

In the pattern سواء كان / كانت ... أم ..., Arabic often uses كان even when English would simply say is.

So كانت here does not necessarily mean past time. In this construction, it often works almost like a neutral linking verb in English whether it is ... or ....

Compare:

• سواء كان الجو حارًا أم باردًا
• whether the weather is hot or cold

Even though كان is formally the past form, the whole expression is idiomatic and is usually translated according to context, not mechanically as past tense.

Because the noun it relates to is الوثيقة, and الوثيقة is grammatically feminine singular.

Arabic verbs agree with their subject in gender here, so:

• الوثيقة = feminine singular
• therefore كانت

If the noun were masculine, you would expect كان instead.

In a basic grammatical analysis:

• كانت = the verb was / be in this construction
• الوثيقة = اسم كان , the noun governed by كان
• جواز السفر and بطاقة الهوية = the two alternatives functioning as the predicate/complement

If you fully vowelled the phrase, you would normally expect:

• الوثيقةُ as nominative
• جوازَ السفرِ and بطاقةَ الهويةِ as accusative complements after كان

In normal Arabic writing, those short vowels are usually omitted, so learners do not see the case endings on the page.

Because both are iḍāfa phrases, often called a construct phrase.

• جواز السفر = passport
• بطاقة الهوية = identity card

In an iḍāfa:

• the first noun usually does not take الـ
• the second noun determines whether the whole phrase is definite

So:

• السفر has الـ, which makes جواز السفر definite as a whole
• الهوية has الـ, which makes بطاقة الهوية definite as a whole

This is why جواز السفر already means the passport, even though جواز itself has no الـ.

The prefix سـ marks the future.

So:

• أسلمها = I hand it over / I deliver it
• سأسلمها = I will hand it over / I will deliver it

It is a shorter future marker than سوف. In many contexts:

• سأسلمها
• سوف أسلمها

are very similar in meaning, though سوف can sound a bit more formal or slightly more emphatic.

ها is the attached object pronoun meaning her / it.

Here it means it, and it refers back to الوثيقة.

Since الوثيقة is grammatically feminine, the pronoun must also be feminine:

• الوثيقة = feminine singular
• ها = feminine singular object pronoun

So سأسلمها means I will hand it over, literally I-will-hand-over-it.

Unvowelled Arabic often leaves room for more than one reading, so context matters.

If the intended meaning is I will hand it over / deliver it, a likely reading is:

• سأُسَلِّمُها

In ordinary writing, short vowels and the shadda are usually not written, so it may appear simply as:

• سأسلمها

That means learners often have to identify the verb from context and meaning, not from spelling alone.

Yes. That is a perfectly good and slightly more explicit or formal version.

So you may see both:

• سواء كانت الوثيقة جواز السفر أم بطاقة الهوية
• سواء أكانت الوثيقة جواز السفر أم بطاقة الهوية

The added أ before كانت is common in formal writing and helps mark the alternative structure more clearly. Both are understandable, and both belong to standard Arabic.