An EU Security Deadline Retires Portugal's Old Paper Identity Card as a Travel Document, Leaving Only the Citizen Card and Passport
Since 3 August, Portugal's old paper Bilhete de Identidade is no longer accepted as a travel document in the Schengen Area or the EU. It lacks the chip and machine-readable zone that EU rules now demand, so travellers must show a valid Citizen Card or passport — even if their BI is marked valid for
If you are Portuguese and still carrying the old paper Bilhete de Identidade (BI, the identity card that preceded today's Citizen Card), it will no longer get you across a European border. Since Monday 3 August 2026, the paper BI is no longer accepted as a travel document anywhere in the Schengen Area or the wider European Union, as reported by Dinheiro Vivo on 16 August and by Notícias ao Minuto on 4 August. To fly or travel within Europe, holders must now show a valid Cartão de Cidadão (Citizen Card) or a valid Portuguese passport.
The reason is technical rather than political. EU rules require documents used for travel to carry advanced security features and a machine-readable zone (MRZ) — the band of characters at the foot of a passport or modern ID card that a border scanner can read optically. The old paper BI has neither a chip nor a functioning MRZ, so it falls short of the standard. That is true even for the many cards stamped with lifelong (vitalícia) validity: as Dinheiro Vivo put it, a note that the document never expires "does not mean it can go on being used indefinitely as a travel document."
Who this actually affects
In practice the change touches a specific and largely older group. Portugal stopped issuing the BI at the end of 2018, when the Citizen Card fully replaced it, so anyone who has renewed since then already holds a compliant card. Those most likely to be caught out are elderly citizens who kept a lifelong BI and never had reason to switch. The paper card is not being cancelled outright — it remains valid for identification inside Portugal, provided it is legally valid — but its days as a passport substitute at the airport are over.
There was no grace period. The cut-off took effect on 3 August with no transitional window, and the European Commission has indicated it will not be extended. The underlying deadline comes from Regulation (EU) 2019/1157, whose Article 5 provides that national identity cards without a functional MRZ "shall cease to be valid at their expiry or by 3 August 2026, whichever is earlier." Portuguese government communications and press coverage also cite a more recent instrument, Regulamento (UE) 2025/1208, as the operative reference — a citation we attribute to those sources.
What this means for readers
- Portuguese nationals: if you still hold a paper BI, request a Citizen Card before any trip abroad, or travel on a valid passport. Do not rely on a "lifelong" BI at a border.
- Foreign residents: this rule concerns Portugal's national BI specifically. Non-Portuguese residents travel on their passport or residence permit and are unaffected by this particular change.
- EU citizens living in Portugal: the same EU deadline invalidated other member states' old-style paper ID cards for travel too. If your home country issued a non-chip paper ID that you use to fly, check whether it still qualifies.
- Inside Portugal: a legally valid paper BI can still be used for everyday identification here; only its cross-border travel use has ended.
The practical takeaway is narrow but easy to trip over during the holiday season, which is precisely why Portuguese outlets flagged it now. A document that has quietly sat in a wallet for years, marked valid for life, will get you as far as the check-in desk and no further. For a summer trip within Europe, the Citizen Card or the passport is now the only paper that counts. On the Portuguese identity-document and registry-security tape, our report on the overnight theft of 500 citizen cards, 200 passports and two official dry seals from the Chaves registry office, and what it means for anyone with a document waiting at a counter sets the latest reference. For anyone working through the Portuguese civil registry, our 2026 guide to changing your name in Portugal: the six-word limit, the 200 euro process decided by the conservador dos Registos Centrais, the seven changes that need no permission, and what marriage and divorce do to surnames sets the latest reference. On the flexibility the border forces have just lost, our account of what expired at the biometric border on 6 September, why the six-hour partial suspension ran that late, and what Portuguese airports have left when a queue builds sets the latest reference.
