New ID cards were introduced on 17 November 2025, when Thales will take over the production of ID cards from the current manufacturer, IDEMIA. The Police and Border Guard Board and the Information System Authority (RIA) point out that this is a large-scale technical transition, which will result in temporary restrictions on the use of e-services provided by foreign countries.
Due to the new ID cards, the European Commission is reviewing changes to the documentation of Estonia’s e-identification system. Until the European Commission has officially approved the changes to Estonia’s eID schemes, ID cards issued from 17 November onwards cannot be used for authentication in foreign e-services.
Until the European Commission’s conformity assessment decision is approved, users can access foreign e-services using alternative authentication methods, such as Mobile-ID or other supported authentication methods.
Estonia is obliged to apply the aforementioned restriction until the European Commission has adopted the administrative decision necessary for assessing the conformity of e-identification schemes. An overview of e-identification schemes notified by other countries for use in the European Union can be found on the website of the European Commission.
Other main changes with Thalese ID-card:
- new chip;
- suspension of ID-card certificates is not possible;
- certificates can be revoked in police selft-service or service points;
- once the ID-card has been received, the PIN2 code must be changed, it is not possible to digitally sign with the ID-card before changing the PIN2;
- PUK-code can't be changed;
- PUK code can be viewed from the Police and Border Guard Board self-service, using alternative eID tools (Mobile-ID, Smart-ID). You can request a PUK envelope containing your forgotten PUK code at the Police and Border Guard Board's service office. The PUK code envelope will only be sent to an address in Estonia and is subject to a state fee.
