They feature digital biometrics, are machine-readable, and are the first in the world to adhere to the new ICAO 9303 standard which have a rotated portrait image of the card holder.

[8] Icelandic identity cards are also accepted for entry to countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Moldova and French Overseas Territories.

[9] Applicants must turn up to the place of issue, with another valid or expired physical ID (passport or driving licence).

The most widely used version is on a mobile phone - with the authentication key held on a SIM card.

Today, this system is used by all banks, e-government services, healthcare, education, document signing and over 300 private companies for customer page logins.

Since the only thing you need to remember is your own PIN code and your phone, it is very widespread and works as a sort of single-sign-on service.

[19] At enrollment centres (e.g. banks or phone companies) users present physical ID and create a PIN.

As of 2023, there are three versions of eIDs:[20]In medieval times, while under the control of other Scandinavian powers, internal passports were required for certain individuals.

The first legal instance of internal passports, then called Reisupassi or passi, were issued from 1781 for certain individuals travelling between regions of Iceland (mostly freemen).

[22] From 1942 to 1945, during the British occupation of Iceland of the Second World War, emergency laws were introduced requiring domestic identification.

[30] In the late 1990s to early 2000s, identity cards stopped being issued by default and had to be collected from sheriffs or Registers Iceland.

[31] The old-style Icelandic ID cards did not fulfil international document security requirements and were therefore not valid for travel.

[7] There were plans in 2007 to introduce an updated ID card with a chip for digital capability which would have allowed their use abroad.

[37][38] The combined ID solution never came to fruition, and separate digital-only eID smartcards (Icelandic: Einkaskilríki) were introduced in 2008 (see below).

[39] In the late 2010s issues began to arise from fraudulent collections of pharmacy prescriptions by using falsified ID cards.

[16][8] Digital ID cards initially rolled out in 2000 to a limited number employees of government departments, large companies and the healthcare system who regularly accessed sensitive information.

In November 2013 the SIM card implementation for mobile phones was introduced, which led to a much quicker take-up of eIDs due to its ease of use.