ID-cards have been issued in Estonia since 2002. Within these years, the visual security elements and design as well as the chip application of ID-cards have changed.
Estonian eID 2018 chip specification
It is also good to know that only the latest version of ID-software supports all generations of ID-card. Older software does not support latest ID-cards anymore.
Downloading the latest ID-software
Validity dates of cards
The validity of the ID-cards used today is five years; between 2002-2006, ID-cards which were valid for 10 years were issued (the certificates of which the user had to renew every 3 years). ID-cards with 10 years of validity are no longer used.
The validity of digital ID and e-Resident’s digital ID is five years for cards issued as of 1 May 2018; before their validity was for 3 years. Today there are two type of cards in use which have different validity times.
Resident permit cards are valid for up to five years, but no longer than the time the person has been granted a residence permit or the right to reside.
By default, the validity of the card is the same as the certificates connected with it.
| When issuing was started? | Document type | ID-card chip application version | Which ID-software versions are supported? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02.2002 | ID-card | 1.0 | ver. 3.1 and later |
| 10.2010 | digital ID | 1.1 | Windows OP system ver. 3.2 and newer, all other OP systems ver. 3.3 and later |
| 01.2011 | ID-card, residence permit card | 3.0 | ver. 3.3 and later |
| 01.2012 | ID-card, residence permit card | 3.4 | ver. 3.5 and later |
| 10.2014* | ID-card, digital ID, e-Resident's digital ID, residence permit card | 3.5 | ver. 3.8 and later |
| 25.10.2017** | ID-card, digital ID, e-Resident's digital ID, residence permit card | 3.5.8 | ver 17.10 and later |
| 03.12.2018 | ID-card, digital ID, e-Resident's digital ID, residence permit card | ver 18.12 and later |
*The issuing of ID-cards was started on 16 October 2014, residence permit cards on 19 December 2014, incl. certificates with SHA-256 hash algorithms, which have been issued since 01 January 2015. Digital ID and e-Resident’s digital ID cards have been issued since 1 December 2014.
**For ID-card certificates, elliptic curve cryptography is taken into use.