“We wanted the government to lower the application fee in order to get more citizens to apply for a national ID card instead of a passport, as the availability of such was good and the delivery time significantly shorter,” says Per Engström, national command director for national special event passports , on the police website.
The discount on ID cards only applied if you did not book a passport at the same time, in order to reduce the pressure on passport applications. A successful catch, according to the police.
“The temporarily reduced application fee has yielded results and the pressure for applying for passports has decreased,” says Per Engström.
The discount is therefore no longer needed, reasoned the police.
A national ID card works just as well as a passport when it comes to traveling within all EU and Schengen countries.
The approximate waiting time to get an appointment to apply for a passport or national ID card is currently six weeks, the police write. An ID card takes about a week to deliver. For passports, you can see estimated delivery times at police website.