Issued by Iceland Purpose Identification | Type of document Passport Eligibility requirements Icelandic citizenship | |
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Date first issued May 2006 (biometric)
June 2013 (current version) Expiration 10 years from date of issue (adults, 2014) | ||
Icelandic passports are issued to citizens of Iceland for the purpose of international travel.
Contents
Physical Appearance
Icelandic passports are blue, with the Icelandic coat of arms emblazoned in the centre of the front cover. The words "ÍSLAND" (Icelandic), "ICELAND" (English) and "ISLANDE" (French) are inscribed above the coat of arms and the words "VEGABRÉF" (Icelandic), "PASSPORT" (English) and "PASSEPORT" (French) are inscribed below the coat of arms. Icelandic passports have the standard biometric symbol at the bottom.
Vegabréf literally means "road letter" and is a word used in Scandinavia in historic centuries meaning internal passport.
Identity Information Page
The Icelandic passport includes the following data:
The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.
Different spellings of the same name
Personal names containing the special Icelandic letters (ð, þ, æ, ö) are spelled the correct way in the non-machine-readable zone, but are mapped in the machine-readable zone. ð becomes D, þ becomes TH, æ becomes AE, and ö becomes OE.
Letters with accents are replaced by simple letters (e.g., é → E). This follows the standard for machine-readable passports.
Languages
The data page/information page is printed in Icelandic, English and French.
Visa free travel
Visa requirements for Icelandic citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Iceland. In 2015, Icelandic citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 164 countries and territories, ranking the Icelandic passport 8th in the world (on par with the Czech passport). Moreover, by virtue of Iceland's membership of the European Economic Area, they can travel to 28 European Union member states, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland to live and work as long as they wish.
Other identity documents
Inside Iceland and the other Nordic countries, an Icelandic identity card or driving licence are enough. They don't state citizenship and therefore aren't usable in most cases as travel documentation outside of the Nordic countries. The Icelandic identity card is called "Nafnskírteini" ("name certificate"). Most people don't have it and use driving licences instead.