National identity card (Sweden)

The front and reverse of a Swedish identity card

The national identity card (Swedish: nationellt id-kort) is a non-compulsory identity document issued in Sweden by the Swedish Police since October 1, 2005. The card can be used for traveling to and staying in countries that have implemented the Schengen Agreement without the need for a passport, but not to EU countries outside the Schengen area^[1] something that violates the EU directive 2004/38/EC chapter II article 4.1. It is only obtainable by Swedish citizens.^[2] Citizens of other countries residing in Sweden can get certified identification cards issued by the tax authority.

The card is valid for five years and costs 400 SEK (about 42 EUR). Applications are filed at police stations which have a passport office.^[1] Not so many, around 100.000 Swedes have obtained an official National identity card. This is because almost all people already have another suitable identity document. The driver's license or the tax authority identity card is fully enough inside the Nordic countries, and the passport, although more bulky, is accepted outside the Nordic countries.

The national identity card is equipped with a contact chip prepared for being able to function as an electronic identity card (eID) at a later date, and also a contactless RFID chip^{[citation needed]} containing a digital representation of the printed data along with the photograph.^[3]

Physical appearance and data contained

The identity card is plastic and rectangular in shape, about 86 × 54 millimetres in size. On the left side is a gold-plated contact chip, on the right side is the photograph of the bearer. On the top edge of the card, the name of Sweden available in three languages, Swedish, English, and French (SVERIGE SWEDEN SUÈDE), below which the name of the card is available in the same three languages (Nationellt identitetskort/National identity card/Carte nationale d'identité), followed on the right by the biometric passport symbol () and the nationality of the bearer in Swedish and a country code (SVENSK/SWE).

Printed data

The descriptions of the fields are printed in Swedish and English.

• Card No.
• Personal Id. No.
• Holder's signature
• Height
• Date of birth
• Surname
• Given names
• Authority
• Date of issue
• Date of expiry

On the back side of the card a machine readable zone is found in the bottom half.

Data on the RFID chip

As of 2007^[update] the data on the RFID chip contains no biometric data. The data it contains is the following:^[3]

• The card's printed data in a digital format
• The photograph in a JPEG format
• A digital key to verify the that the data contained is authentic and hasn't been tampered with

The contents of the RFID chip cannot be accessed without using the codes found in the machine readable zone on the back side.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Fakta om nationellt id-kort". Signguard. http://www.signguard.se/faq.aspx?faqno=9. Retrieved 2009-05-18. 
2. ^ "Förordning (2005:661) om nationellt identitetskort". Parliament of Sweden. 2005-09-01. http://www.riksdagen.se/webbnav/index.aspx?nid=3911&bet=2005:661. Retrieved 2007-08-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Datachippet". Swedish Police Service. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20071013121904/http://polisen.se/inter/nodeid=33380&pageversion=1.jsp. Retrieved 2010-04-02. ^{[dead link]}

See also

• Identity documents in Sweden