ID Card and Driving Licence on Your Phone From October 28 - but Nobody Has Said Yet Where They Can Replace the Real Ones

From October 28, your ID card and driving licence can also be carried on your phone. Digital Transformation Minister Stefan Andonovski announced that the "m.Uslugi" app will be officially launched then, and that it is, he says, completely secure, free and not mandatory.

"This is the first step towards a digital wallet. It's free to use and to download. It's not mandatory, not everyone has to download it, but it will offer a range of benefits," Andonovski said in a TV appearance. The app is in the final testing phase, and talks are under way with Google Play and Apple for it to appear in their stores.

The mechanism, according to the minister, is simple: you enter your personal data, the system pulls it from the Uslugi.mk portal, and with your ID card number it pulls the ID card itself.

The question left unanswered

What the announcement didn't say is the most important thing for ordinary people: where will the digital ID card be valid? So far it hasn't been specified in which situations the electronic documents can replace the physical ones. Will a traffic police officer accept it at a checkpoint? A bank counter? The post office, the municipality, a hotel?

If the answer is "nowhere, for now", then "m.Uslugi" is a nice copy of a document we carry in our wallets anyway. A digital document is worth exactly as much as institutions are willing to accept it. Will October 28 also bring a list of where the app actually counts?

Roaming - early 2027

Andonovski also talked about the announced "roam like at home" deal with the European Union. The draft agreement arrived a few days ago and has been sent to the ministries for comment, with a deadline at the end of the week. After that come remarks to the European Commission and negotiations, and the minister expects the agreement to be ready in early 2027.