Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir, Minister of Justice, delivers the first passport to Ína Andradóttir, who went through a new application process.

District Commissioners and the National Registry of Iceland have now opened the facility for pre-registration and payment for passport applications. This will shorten and simplify the application process for passports, and guardians will not both have to attend to the district commissioners with children applying.

On Ísland.is My pages and in the Ísland.is app one can find the validity period and passport number. This applies to one's children's passports as well. Good access to this information is intended to simplify people's lives in preparation for travel and during traveling.

Once registration on Ísland.is is complete, the applicant needs to go to the District Commissioner to complete the part of the application that requires attendance, such as photo, signing, and fingerprinting. One can book an appointment to take a picture in the capital area. No booking is required at other application sites. Applications for passports have so far included lines and much work at the District Commissioners, most notably filling in forms, waiting with a teller to pay for the passport, and waiting for a photo. With pre-registration and payment on Ísland.is, this process is accelerated in such a way that the applicant simply checks Ísland.is that one requests a passport, then completes the payment, and eventually shows up to the District Commissioners for a photo shoot to complete the application process and can do so in any District Commissioners office in Iceland, regardless of where they live. Applying on behalf of children is much simpler in the digital solution where guardians can now approve the application online instead of both having to attend the District Commissioner's office. One guardian starts the application process and the other receives a digital request by e-mail and Ísland.is My Pages to approve the child's passport application. Passports issued in Iceland this year are approaching 48,000. Most passports in one year were issued in 2016 when around 76,000 passports were issued.

Life stories of how this change affects people

• A guardian who had traveled far brought her child to the District Commissioners in order to apply for a passport and had not realized that both guardians would have to approve the child's application by filling in and signing a special form. Instead of being sent away and having to come back with the other guardian, she was offered the opportunity to apply digitally and the other guardian, who was in another community, was able to approve the application and the child was able to have its photo taken and finalize the application.

• A guardian brought his child to the District Commissioners to apply for a passport and thought the other guardian did not have to come along because they were married. He intended to wait for his spouse to get out of work to come by the District Commissioner and sign the petition, at which point an employee pointed him out about the new application. The guardian filled out the digital application, and his spouse logged onto Ísland.is My pages and digitally agreed through her phone, so she did not have to take time off work.

• A family with three children brought two of them to the District Commissioner's office, but one teenager was in school and could not join on this day. The parents completed the digital application for all three children and finalized the application for the two children present while the teenager stopped by the next day with one of the parents and went straight to the photoshoot.

The project was carried out in cooperation between the District Commissioners, the National Registry of Iceland, and Digital Iceland.

Read more about the passport application on Ísland.is