The Norwegian identity card, commonly referred to as the national identity card (Norwegian: nasjonalt ID-kort, Northern Sami: ID-duođaštus) in Norway, is a non-compulsory biometric identity document issued since 30 November 2020. It is one of two official identity documents issued by the Norwegian Police Service, the other being the Norwegian passport. It is issued to Norwegian citizens as a travel document and may indicate citizenship to facilitate freedom of movement within the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area, as well as EU/EEA residents as a domestic identification document within Norway. For travel within the Nordic countries no identity documentation is legally required for Nordic citizens due to the Nordic Passport Union.
History
Earlier ID cards During the Second World War, the authorities issued a mandatory identity card. This card was abandoned after the end of the war, as it was strongly associated with the occupation force and its control regime. Norway Post started issuing a photo identity card on 1 March 1957, initially free for all residents over 15 years old. These were intended for use at the post offices, but were quickly adopted by other public and private instances as a valid photo ID. For several decades these were along with passports and driver's licenses the only widely recognized ID in Norwegian society. During the 1970s the postal ID cards were the only valid IDs for proving age on public transport. Bank cards were launched in 1977, originally only serving as an ID card. These were intended for a clerk to be able to verify the identity of the person writing the check. By the 1980s the cards were used as debit cards, and even after checks were phased out of common use in the early 1990s, the bank cards retained a photo ID, including the national identity number of the person. The widespread use of bank cards as ID gradually led to the termination of postal ID cards. Legally, bank cards are a customer card which serves no particular legal purpose. However, because of the stringent requirements needed to verify one's identity to the bank in order to open an account and be issued a bank card, bank cards became widely accepted as ID cards, even at public institutions. The banking sector was strongly in favor of replacing bank card-based IDs with government-issued IDs. Banks had no obligation to issue IDs. One issue was that the banks bore the cost of issuing the IDs. The other was that the banks did not have the same ability to authenticate people with confidence as government authorities, increasing the risk of fake IDs being issued. With the announcement of the National ID Card plans, a number of banks stopped issuing ID fields on their bank cards.
Need for a new ID card system By the mid-2000s the situation had become untenable, with no generic, government-issued ID card available. Postal ID cards were phased out, banks were wanting to rid themselves of their obligation, passports could only be issued to Norwegian citizens and driver's licenses were restricted to those with the right to drive motor vehicles. Some people were left using their passports as their only valid ID. Certain group of immigrants were not able to acquire IDs altogether. Non-Norwegian citizens could not be issued passports, and without a government-issued ID card which showed their national identity number, they were unable to open a bank account. This further hindered them from getting jobs, as Norwegian anti-money laundering laws require wages to be paid to a bank account. The situation was exacerbated by Norway at the time not allowing multiple citizenship, which discouraged many foreigners who were long-term residents to apply for Norwegian citizenship. Another issue was the lack of a government-issued eID. Banking, most private and eGovernment services relied heavily on private eID services, the most common being the bank-issued BankID. NorSIS stated that this was problematic because the government had no way of directly issuing eID with sufficiently high security levels. This largely effected the same people as were not able to open bank accounts, since holding a valid bank account had become the de facto means of acquiring an eID. NorSIS was also concerned that the quality of authentication issued by banks was inferior to that carried out by the police, which could lead to more fake IDs. Additionally, it was possible for an impostor to receive an eID for another person, without the victim having knowledge of the eID being issued. NorSIS recommended that all residents and other people in the National Population Register be issued a root eID from the government, as part of an ID card, and that other eID use these root eIDs as the basis for their verification.
Development and introduction
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