You cannot use France Identity because of your old identity card? Good news, you will be able to request its renewal from the beginning of 2025 in order to create a digital copy.
The France Identity mobile application, available free of charge on the Play Store for Android and the App Store for iPhone, offers numerous advantages and is gradually establishing itself as an essential digital tool. Developed by the Government as part of the action plan for the digital transformation of the State and associated with the SGIN, the Digital Identity Guarantee Service, it allows you to dematerialize your identity card and driving license to store them in your smartphone, and thus easily authenticate on online services via FranceConnect. In this way, it is possible to prove your identity without disclosing private data, while always having the document with you.
However, there are certain conditions to be met to benefit from it, since you must be of legal age and have an NFC compatible smartphone running at least Android 8 or iOS 16 and a new national electronic identity card (CNIe) – the credit card format model, distributed since August 2021, which integrates a chip and a QR code. Currently, around 25 million French people have this card for nearly 1.2 million digital identities created. To facilitate the process, the director of France Titles, Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin, announced, on France Culturethat the French will be able to request a renewal of their identity card from the beginning of 2025 for the simple reason that they wish to create a digital identity.
France Identity: easier access to the CNIe
Currently, it is only possible to renew your identity card on the grounds that it has expired, been lost or stolen, or following a change in marital status. In the event of loss or theft, you must pay 25 euros. But from the start of next year, millions of French people will be able to obtain the precious sesame in its new format thanks to the new reason for renewing the identity card, and thus use France Idété.
“From the beginning of next year, we will be able to say ‘I want a digital identity’ and that will be a valid reason to have this new identity card”assures Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin. However, the old one must have been issued between 2016 and 2021. “For what ? Because during this period, we have the identity data in our files. This allows you to automatically create [les nouvelles cartes]and therefore reducing the workload of town halls and prefectures.” Those who have a previous one will still have to be patient.
France Identity: new documents soon supported
Several new features are arriving from France Identity. The director of France Titles announced that “in a few weeks, we will be able to show our identity card on our phone when we take the trains.” The SNCF has been accepting France Identity as proof of identity for several months, but the check is only visual until now. NFC communication does exist, but it is still in beta (see our article). It should therefore soon be deployed to all users.
In addition to the dematerialization of the identity card and driving license, the France Identity application should soon welcome the registration document. “This is one of the next steps”assured Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin. Remember that the Vitale card should also soon make its entry into the application.