If that person is unable to present a valid passport or national identity card at the border, he or she must nonetheless be afforded every reasonable opportunity to obtain the necessary documents within a reasonable period of time or corroborate or prove by other means that he or she is covered by the right of free movement.

However, it also applies when a covered person is moving back to his home country after staying in another EEA state, as defined in the case of Surinder Singh.

As long as a citizen has sufficient money or income not to rely on public funds and holds comprehensive health insurance, they exercise one or more treaty rights.

The right of free movement is granted automatically when the requirements are fulfilled, and it is not subject to an administrative act.

[5] Permanent residence removes any restrictions that are in place concerning access to public funds (such as unemployment benefits, a state pension etc.

All applications covered by the directive are free, or require at most a moderate fee similar to comparable national documents.

In Austria, the directive is transposed into national law mainly via the Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz[6] (regarding residence) and the Fremdenpolizeigesetz[7] (regarding entrance).

The applications are handled locally at the Magistrat or Bezirkshauptmannschaft (except in Styria where the Landeshauptmann takes direct responsibility).

[9][10] In Norway this was implemented by changing the Alien Law (Norwegian: utlendingsloven), which entered into force on 1 Jan 2010.

Applications are submitted locally at the municipality (gemeente in Dutch) together with the mandatory registration of residence, but they are processed centrally at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst, IND).