There are several identity documents used in Sweden. None are compulsory by law, meaning that there is no formal penalty for not possessing one. Certified identification cards are issued by the tax agency. The police issues passports and national identity cards, but only for Swedish citizens. A Swedish driver's license, issued by the transport agency, is also accepted as an identity document. Banks sometimes issue identity cards for established customers or their children.
In Sweden, no law has been introduced about compulsory identity documents. However there is no law forbidding an authority or company to demand to see one. For certain situations, the law says that safe identification is needed, without saying how it should done. In these cases a Swedish identity document is usually expected by authorities like the police.
Identity documents are needed in Sweden in certain commonly occurring situations, e.g. purchases using debit- or credit cards when not using a PIN, or picking up a package at the postal service representatives, or for age checking when purchasing alcoholic beverages, or to get medical care and medicines. A valid Swedish identity document is also required for opening a bank account or other situations where the use of Swedish personal identity number is required.
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Historically in Sweden, it was the banks and the Swedish postal service that first saw a need that people should have identity documents. They issued identity documents for anyone. To prove the identity for this relative simple routines were used, like having bank account documents, driver’s licence or passport, being recognised by the bank staff or bringing a friend with an identity document. These routines were used for decades from the 1960s until the 21st century although the security routines were strengthened during the time. Swedish passports were banned an identity document during several years because they were relatively easy to forge, and allowed again after they were made more secure in 1998. The driver's licences had enough security to be accepted by the banks.
Authorities saw the need of checking identity of people in certain situations, to make sure which personal identity number the person in front of them had. For example handling payment for sick leave, driver's licence tests or police arrests. For this usually the identity documents accepted by the banks were allowed, because there was no law regarding identity documents and how they were issued.
Around year 2005 banks strengthened their routine to issue identity cards, so only near relatives verifiable by the banks, in reality only parents or adult children, could guarantee the identity of some who had no valid identity document. This other person needed a valid Swedish identity document. The reason was the existence of identity fraud, and that banks had to pay compensation to people affected. The cashier service owned by the postal service followed this rule in 2007. There was no law about these rules or saying that banks or the cashier service had to issue these cards. As a consequence, everyone who did not have any Swedish parent or adult child could not get an identity document. Swedish citizens could get a passport, but not citizens of other countries resident in Sweden.
The government decided that they should take the responsibility to issue identity documents to people in Sweden. As a consequence of this, the Swedish Tax Agency started issuing certified identity cards in August 2009. During two and a half years, foreign citizens without a parent resident in Sweden could not get an identity document, if they had none.
Still in 2010 several thousands of people are unable to get identity documents.[1]
The national identity card is issued by the Police and applications are filed at police stations which have a passport office. The national identity card can only be obtained by Swedish citizens. It is a valid identity document within the Schengen Area, but according to Swedish law not to EU countries outside the Schengen Area (violating the EU directive on free movement). The card is valid for five years.
The 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 containing the card's printed data in a digital format along with the photograph in a JPEG format along with a digital key to verify that the data contained is authentic and hasn't been tampered with. The data in the contactless card can only be accessed after using the printed codes on the back side of the card.[2][3][4]
Certified identification cards can be obtained by anyone who is population registered in Sweden, that is, has a Swedish personal identity number. The Swedish Tax Agency[5][6] issues identity cards for anyone fulfilling the requirement of being population registered in Sweden, and can provide an accepted means of identifying oneself. This last rule caused many problems for foreigners and even some Swedes between 2007 and 2010.
As of October 1, 2010 in order to get an Swedish ID card, the following are required:
If you fail to meet these requirements, you can also request a "balanced assessment". In this case, the Tax Agency will compare the information on your application with what is on file with other agencies and make a decision. A non-EU passport together with the identity investigation that was done in the immigration application process might be sufficient.
Processing time to receive a card is 2 business weeks from time of approval. Approval times ranges from instant to eight weeks, depending on your situation. Foreigners using a residency permit to verify their identity face longer wait times due to the fact that the immigration board does not collect digital captures of signatures, and in order to instantly approve an application, the employee taking the application must be able to match the signed signature to something on file.
Still the identity cards are not 100.0 % reliable, since there might still be people prepared to do false certicification. For example it has happened that parents with adult children have vouched for other people to be their child, who got id cards in the children's name, being able to get bank loans and credit cards etc.
As of October 1, 2010, the Swedish Tax Agency started allowing residency permits to be used to verify your identity. Before this, foreign students from outside the EU at Swedish universities were denied ID cards on the basis that their passports were not valid ID documents and that they were unable to provide an appropriate person to vouch. Due to the high time cost (wait times at Swedish Tax Agency offices can range from 15 minutes to several hours) and high volume, universities were generally unable to assist, despite the technical allowance in the law that allows a "international advisor at a state university" to attest for a student.
Information at the time that the tax agency office took over the duties of issuing ID cards was also incomplete or vague regarding who could vouch for your identity, leading to confusion both among applicants and among employees.
Most of the Swedish banks can issue identity cards for their customers, but has generally stopped doing that.[7] Some businesses and government authorities issue certified identification cards to their employees, which are usually accepted as identity documents.
Driver's licenses are issued by the Swedish Transport Agency[8] and are generally accepted as identity documents in the same manner as the identification cards issued by the banks and postal service.
The burgundy-colour Swedish passports issued since 1998 are accepted as identity documents. The blue passports issued up until 1998 are not accepted as identity documents due to insufficient security features. Passports issued since October 1, 2005 are of a biometric variety and valid for five years. Passports are issued by the Police and applications are filed at police stations which have a passport office.
The passports issued since October 1, 2005 contain an RFID chip containing the passport's printed data in a digital format along with the photograph in a JPEG format along with a digital key to verify the that the data contained is authentic and hasn't been tampered with. The data in the chip can only be accessed after using the printed codes on the lower part of the passport's person page. Fingerprints are stored since June 28, 2009.[9]
A passport is always needed to be able to pass border checks when travelling to or from Sweden, except when travelling from another Schengen country.[10][11]
When staying in Sweden (as opposed to crossing the border) a passport is needed for foreign citizens, except for EU/EEA citizens. EU/EEA citizens, however, need to be able to prove their citizenship through a passport or national identity card [10]
When trying to obtain services requiring an identity document, foreign passports and other identification documents are often not accepted in Sweden. This especially happens in situations requiring the Swedish personal identity number (like in banks) as such documents do not contain said number. The security level of foreign-issued documents may also be considered insufficient. While banks have systems to verify if a particular identity document has been stolen, this only works for Swedish ones. The Schengen Information System has such info for EU/EEA passports, but only authorities can use it and not banks or post offices.
Since 2009, EU/EEA passports have been accepted as identification documents in Sweden owing to EU legislation.