New EMN inform examines the adoption and use of digital-only identity documents and residence permits issued to third country nationals

The inform offers an in-depth examination of practices, challenges, and advantages across EMN Member and Observer Countries. The inform aims to act as a valuable resource for policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders involved in shaping the future landscape of digitalization of identity documents and residence permits issued to third-country nationals.nOverall, the majority of EMN Member, as well as Georgia and Ukraine, currently do not issue digital-only residence permits and identity documents to third-country nationals. Notably, the only countries, who have started issuing digital-only residence permits and identity documents are Italy, Lithuania, and Poland. nSeveral EMN Member and Observer Countries recognise the benefits related to issuing digital-only documents to third-country nationals. Digital documents are considered more secure, while digitalised production and procedures have the potential to save resources, time and finances of national authorities.nAs only a few EMN Member Countries issue digital-only residence permits and identity documents, thus the evidence on their use is limited. However, authorities, who are using digital-only documents reported several advantages. This includes following:nnDigital-only documents are reported to be easier, cheaper and faster to create;nRequire fewer resources to produce and deliver;nEnable capacity savings stemming from digital-only documents and procedures;nHeighten security and verifiability; nHarder to falsify and less susceptible to fraud than their physical equivalent.nnThere are some key considerations to be taken into account for using digital-only documents. Some EMN Member and Observer Countries reported following challenges:nn Social acceptance or hesitancy from the public, stakeholders, and national law enforcement authorities;n Operability and reliability of these IT systems; nInformation-sharing and access to nationally held data to be a key issue when trying to verify digital-only documents.n + Find out more about the digitalisation of identity documents and residence permits issued to third-country nationals More about the EMN on the EU level More about the EMN Slovakia