Can’t use France Identity because of your old identity card? Good news, you can ask for free renewal now to create a digital copy.
The France Identity Mobile Application, available free of charge on the Play Store and the App Store, is gradually essential as an essential digital tool. Developed by the government in the context of the digital transformation of the State and linked to the Sgin (guarantee service for digital identity), it allows you to store its identity card, its vital card and its driving license on your smartphone. Thanks to this dematerialization, authentication on online services via FranceConnect is facilitated. In this way, it is possible to prove your identity without disclosing private data, while having the document always on yourself (see our article).
There are however certain conditions to be fulfilled to benefit from it, since it is necessary to be of age, to have a smartphone compatible with NFC running Android 8 or iOS 16 minimum, as well as a national electronic identity card (CNIE) – the model in credit card format, distributed since August 2021, which integrates a chip and a QR code. Today, around 25 million French people have this card, and 1.2 million digital identities have already been created. In order to facilitate the process, it is now possible to request a renewal of your identity card as early as 2025 on the simple reason to desire to have your identity papers on smartphone, as announced several months ago.
CNIE: How to renew your old identity card?
Until now, it was only possible to renew your identity card on the grounds that it had expired, had been lost or stolen, or as a result of a change of civil status. From now on, it is possible to obtain the precious sesame in its new format thanks to the new reason for the renewal of the identity card, via the option “Renewal for digital identity”and thus use France Identity.
Here’s how to ask for the new identity card:
► Go to the Ants website At this address ;
► Connect or create a France Connect account;
► Select the document you want to obtain (here a national identity card) as well as the reason for renewal Digital identity renewal ;
► Press the blue button Continue ;
► Inform your civil status and nationality, and complete the address and contact information;
► Validate the Pré-Demande. Please keep the pre-Demande number and/or QR code;
► As for a classic renewal, you must make an appointment at the town hall. To help you, you can use CNI-PASSPORTa search engine which allows you to view, for the next three months, the appointments at the town hall available in a geographic area ranging from 20 to 60 kilometers;
► Prepare the supporting documents as well as an identity photo for your appointment and follow the progress of your request via your ANTS account.
Please note, this new renewal has some particularities. Indeed, it excludes changes in name, first name and sex, and cannot be made simultaneously at a first request or a passport renewal. In addition, this is a renewal “Introduced on an experimental basis“, we read On the site of the Manche Prefecture. It is therefore only open to “Any adult and legally capable, whose identity card in ancient format expires in more than 12 months“. In the opposite case, there is no other choice than to wait.