Czech national identity card
identity document
The Czech national identity card (Czech: občanský průkaz, citizen card, literally civic certificate; Czech pronunciation: [ˈoptʃanskiː ˈpruːkas]) is the identity document used in the Czech Republic (and formerly in Czechoslovakia), in addition to the Czech passport. It is issued to all citizens, and every person above 15 years of age permanently living in the Czech Republic is required by law to hold a valid identity card.
It is possible to use the ID card instead of a passport for travel within European Union or Schengen Area and to some other states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia) and organized tours to Tunisia, but not to Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
History
The first mandatory identity document was introduced during the German occupation on 17 March 1939, in a decree made by Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath. This document was based on the model of a similar document already in use in the Third Reich and included a photograph. Known as a legitimace, it was often nicknamed kennkarta (after the German Kennkarte).
During the communist regime (1948–1989) this simple card developed into a booklet dozens of pages long. It contained such personal details as employment history and vaccination records.
Requirements
To acquire the machine-readable version of the card, a citizen must present either a currently valid card (in case of renewals), or a currently valid passport, or a birth certificate and proof of citizenship. A photograph is made at the premises of the issuing authority; the form is filled out by an employee of the issuing authority and only requires the signature of the applicant.
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This entry incorporates text from “Czech national identity card” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.