One Million Electronic Residence Permits Produced by Bundesdruckerei

Since Sept. 1 2011, foreigners living in Germany have been issued the new electronic residence permit. This ID document, developed by Bundesdruckerei, in credit-card format replaces the former passport sticker. The aim is to standardize throughout Europe residence permits for third-country nationals, i.e., foreigners from countries that do not belong to the European Union.

The residence card offers holders the same options as the new German ID card does to German citizens. The online ID function allows holders to take care of dealings with public agencies online or to confirm their ID when shopping on the net.

But to use the card in this way, holders must ensure that the function is not deactivated when the card is collected. Service providers who have integrated the eID function into their website must also provide unambiguous proof of identity. Just like the new German ID card, the residence permit can also be used for the qualified electronic signature (QES). This allows users to sign contracts, etc. online in a manner recognised by law.

The chip inside the card stores all the personal data that is visible on the residence permit, including the digital biometric photo. It also contains additional provisions, so-called special conditions, such as details regarding occupation and two fingerprints as a mandatory feature for holders over the age of six. Both the biometric data and the special conditions can only be accessed by authorized authorities, such as the police, border control or custom officers.

Since the introduction of the new electronic residence permit, Bundesdruckerei has provided around 600 aliens’ authorities with update and reader terminals as well as software for the application process, in much the same way as the company equipped the roughly 5,400 registration offices for the new German ID card. In order to enable the use of the new online functions of these ID documents, Bundesdruckerei also offers authorization certificates and an eID service for online service providers.