Austria’s Interior Ministry has announced that, effective September 2, 2024, 137 municipal offices throughout Austria will offer a new photo registration service for e-cards.
Through an ordinance of the Minister of the Interior, 137 municipal offices are permitted to register photos for e-cards of Austrians. 109 municipalities can also register photographs for foreign nationals. The participating municipalities are listed in the ordinance.
The ability to upload images for the e-card directly to the municipal offices, instead of having to visit the State Police Directorate or the Federal Office for Foreigners and Asylum in the state capital, will shorten the process for users.
Since 2020, e-cards in Austria have been provided with a photo of the holder. The images used for this purpose have so far come mainly from the driver’s license register and other state registers. As a result, however, not all Austrian nationals were recorded and foreign nationals were generally not taken into account. Austrian nationals therefore had to contact the social insurance authorities for photo registration and people without Austrian citizenship had to contact the state police directorates or federal offices for foreign affairs and asylum.
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