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Passport on a table: “Simpler and more digital”
Photo: Hannes P Albert / dpa
From the end of April 2025, a printed photo will no longer be required to apply for a new ID card or passport. The Federal Cabinet decided on a corresponding innovation on Wednesday in Berlin. The reform still has to pass the Federal Council.
Central to this are photo booths available in authorities, which in the future will also be able to capture fingerprints and signatures and transmit them digitally to the responsible authorities. From May next year, passports and identity cards should also be able to be delivered by post if someone is registered in Germany - this means there is no need to go to the office to collect them.
If you want, you can have a reminder sent to you by email before an ID document expires. Applying for German passports and ID cards should become easier for people who naturalize in Germany.
The changes will make handling passport and ID matters “easier and more digital,” explained Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). »We save citizens from having to make tedious trips to the office. And we save some people the rude awakening shortly before their vacation that their passport has expired.«
kfr/AFP/dpa