To get an EU Digital Identity Wallet, you apply through your national government’s designated wallet provider. Each EU member state is responsible for issuing at least one EUDI Wallet to its citizens and residents free of charge. The exact process varies by country, but the wallet is tied to your verified national identity. This article walks through who qualifies, when wallets become available, how to obtain one, and what it means for both individuals and organizations.
Who is eligible to get an EU Digital Identity Wallet?
Every EU citizen and resident is eligible to receive an EU Digital Identity Wallet. Under eIDAS 2.0, which amends Regulation (EU) 910/2014 through Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, all EU member states are required to offer at least one EUDI Wallet to their citizens and residents. Eligibility is broad by design. If you live in the European Union, you have the right to request and use a digital identity wallet issued by your government.
The wallet is not limited to citizens with a national ID card or passport. Residents, including non-EU nationals legally residing in a member state, are also covered. The goal of eIDAS 2.0 is to give everyone in Europe access to a secure, government-backed digital identity that works across borders and online services.
Businesses and organizations are also part of the ecosystem. While the wallet itself is issued to individuals, organizations will need to accept and interact with wallet-based credentials as relying parties. This is especially relevant for organizations in sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and government services, where identity verification is a core part of daily operations.
When will the EU Digital Identity Wallet be available?
The legal deadline for EU member states to make EUDI Wallets available to citizens is 24 December 2026. This is the latest date by which member states must have a notified wallet available, not a predicted launch date. Member states are currently at different stages of national execution, and several countries have already launched pilot programs or early national implementations. However, this deadline does not guarantee that every national wallet will have reached the same level of maturity by that date, or that every possible cross-border use case will be fully operational throughout Europe from that moment. Practical interoperability and national rollout are expected to develop in phases beyond the deadline.
The timeline and readiness differ significantly by country. Some member states have moved quickly and are already signaling what a national wallet rollout looks like in practice. Others are still finalizing their technical infrastructure and governance frameworks. It is important to distinguish between an existing national digital identity system and a certified, notified EUDI Wallet: the two are not automatically the same thing, and national status information should always be verified against current authoritative sources before being relied upon. The European Commission ran large-scale pilots across different use cases to test interoperability and functionality before broader deployment. The first four Large Scale Pilots ran from April 2023 to 2025 and have concluded. A second wave of pilots started in 2025, including WE BUILD, which focuses on business wallets and payments, and APTITUDE, which covers travel, ticketing, vehicle registration, and payments.
For organizations, the period leading up to 24 December 2026 is a critical preparation window. Public bodies will be required to accept notified EUDI Wallets for online services that require electronic identification from that date. For relevant regulated private sectors, the acceptance obligation under Article 5f of eIDAS 2.0 applies from 24 December 2027. This means the technical and compliance groundwork needs to start now, because national rollouts and the maturity of cross-border use cases will develop at different paces across member states.
How do you actually obtain an EU Digital Identity Wallet?
You obtain an EU Digital Identity Wallet by downloading your country’s official wallet app and completing an identity verification process tied to your existing national identity. The exact steps depend on your member state, but the general process follows a consistent pattern across countries.
Here is how the process typically works:
- Find your national wallet: Your government designates one or more official EUDI Wallet providers. Check your national digital identity authority’s website to identify the correct app or service.
- Download the wallet app: The wallet is usually available as a mobile application on iOS and Android. Some implementations may also offer web-based access.
- Verify your identity: You link the wallet to your existing government-issued identity, such as your national ID card, passport, or existing eID. This step often involves NFC chip reading, biometric checks, or verification through an existing national identity scheme.
- Collect your credentials: Once verified, you can load government-issued attestations into your wallet, starting with a Person Identification Data (PID) credential, which is the digital equivalent of your ID document.
- Add further attestations over time: As the ecosystem grows, you can add other attestations, such as a driving licence, professional qualifications, or health data, issued by trusted authorities. These may take the form of Qualified Electronic Attribution Attestations (QEAAs), Public Body-issued Electronic Attribution Attestations (PuB-EAAs), or non-qualified EAAs depending on the issuer and the level of assurance involved.
The process is designed to be accessible and straightforward. Because the wallet builds on identity data you already have, the verification step is not a full re-enrollment from scratch. It is a secure bridge between your existing identity and your new digital wallet. It is also worth noting that private keys for PID and attestations are held within the Wallet Secure Cryptographic Device and do not leave it. If you switch to a new device, attestations are re-issued by the relevant issuer rather than copied across.
What can you use the EU Digital Identity Wallet for?
The EU Digital Identity Wallet can be used to identify yourself online and in person, share specific personal data with services, sign documents digitally, and access both public and private services across EU member states. It is designed to reduce the need to repeatedly prove your identity from scratch every time you interact with a new organization.
Practical use cases include:
- Logging in to government portals and public services
- Opening a bank account or completing KYC checks with a financial institution
- Proving your age or qualifications without sharing unnecessary personal details
- Signing contracts and official documents with a qualified electronic signature
- Accessing healthcare services and sharing relevant medical attestations
- Enrolling at a university or verifying professional certifications
- Presenting a Digital Travel Credential, which has been tested in pilot programs, at border or airport controls, though this is not yet a fully operational service across member states
Cross-border use cases depend on interoperability between certified national wallets and appropriately registered relying parties in other member states. Not every use case will be immediately available in every member state, and sector-specific legislation and national registration requirements continue to apply alongside the wallet framework.
One of the most important features of the EUDI Wallet is selective disclosure. You only share the data that a specific interaction requires. If a service needs to confirm you are over 18, the wallet can disclose the attribute confirming that fact without revealing your date of birth or any other personal information. This is possible through selective disclosure of individual attributes, for example using SD-JWT VC or mdoc credential formats. This privacy-by-design approach is a fundamental part of how the wallet works. Wallet use is voluntary, and the user approves each individual presentation request in the wallet. This approval is distinct from consent as a legal basis under the GDPR: relying parties need their own GDPR legal basis for processing the data they receive.
Is the EU Digital Identity Wallet safe to use?
The EU Digital Identity Wallet is designed to meet high security and privacy standards under eIDAS 2.0. The wallet uses cryptographic technology to ensure that credentials are tamper-evident and cannot be used without your explicit approval of each individual request. Security and user control are built into the architecture from the ground up.
Several safeguards are in place to protect wallet users. Credentials stored in the wallet are cryptographically bound to the wallet unit, meaning they cannot simply be copied and used by someone else. The wallet also operates on a principle of minimal data sharing, so services only receive the specific information they need and nothing more.
When a relying party verifies a presentation from an EUDI Wallet, this involves a set of distinct checks. First, the relying party verifies the issuer’s signature against the relevant national trusted list, which is part of the EU List of Trusted Lists (LOTL). This check can be performed offline. Second, the relying party checks the revocation status of the attestation using status information provided by the issuer, which requires a connection to that information. Third, the relying party validates the wallet unit attestation to confirm that the presenting wallet instance is running on a certified wallet solution. These three checks together form the basis of a complete verification.
From a governance perspective, the EUDI Wallet ecosystem operates under a shared responsibility model. The European Commission manages the legal framework and adopts implementing acts that set legally binding requirements. Member states are responsible for providing or mandating wallet solutions, certifying and notifying them, and supervising actors within their jurisdiction. The European Digital Identity Cooperation Group supports cooperation and cross-border alignment between member states. National competent authorities and registrars, wallet providers, issuers of Person Identification Data and attestations, qualified trust service providers, and relying parties each carry distinct roles and responsibilities within this framework. The Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF) provides the technical elaboration of the requirements set out in the implementing acts. Only accredited issuers can add attestations to wallets, and only registered relying parties can request data from them, creating a controlled and auditable environment.
For organizations operating in regulated sectors, the wallet can simplify compliance. Because identity attestations are government-issued and cryptographically verifiable, they carry a high level of assurance. However, whether wallet-based identity data satisfies specific requirements under frameworks such as AML or strong customer authentication under PSD2 depends on applicable sectoral rules, not on eIDAS alone. Explore identity solutions that are built to align with these requirements.
What should organizations do to prepare for the EUDI Wallet?
Organizations should start preparing now by assessing how the EUDI Wallet will affect their identity verification processes, customer onboarding flows, and compliance obligations. National rollouts and the maturity of cross-border use cases will develop at different paces across member states, so preparation should begin well in advance of the relevant deadlines.
Key preparation steps include understanding which use cases in your organization will involve wallet-based attestations, evaluating whether your current identity infrastructure can accept verifiable credentials in formats such as mdoc and SD-JWT VC, and identifying which regulatory requirements the wallet will help you satisfy. Organizations in government services and healthcare will likely face mandatory acceptance requirements. Public bodies must be ready to accept notified wallets by 24 December 2026. For relevant regulated private sectors, including banking and financial services, healthcare, telecoms, energy, transport, education, social security, drinking water, postal services, digital infrastructure, and digital services, the acceptance obligation under Article 5f applies from 24 December 2027. Micro and small enterprises, defined as organizations with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than 10 million euros, are exempt from this obligation. Very large online platforms (VLOPs) are subject to a separate provision under Article 5f: they must accept EUDI Wallets where the platform requires user authentication, on a voluntary basis at the user’s request and limited to the minimum necessary data.
Under CIR (EU) 2025/848 of 6 May 2025, relying parties must register with the national authority of their member state of establishment before they can request wallet data. Registration covers the specific intended uses and the attributes and attestations the relying party intends to request. The wallet checks each presentation request against this registered scope. A relying party must be able to accept every relevant notified wallet, regardless of which wallet provider issued it. A supplier that processes wallet data on behalf of a client does not become the relying party as a result: the registration obligation rests with the organization delivering the service to the end user.
It is also worth mapping out the customer journey impact. The EUDI Wallet has the potential to reduce onboarding friction and drop-off rates, because customers can reuse verified identity data. Organizations that integrate wallet support early will be better positioned to offer faster, smoother digital experiences.
Staying informed about your member state’s implementation timeline and participating in relevant pilots or consultations is another practical step. The European Commission’s implementing acts set the legally binding requirements, while the ARF provides authoritative technical guidance on how the ecosystem is being built. Both are publicly available. For organizations with cross-border operations, understanding how interoperability between certified national wallets works in practice, and which use cases remain subject to national or sector-specific rules, is equally important. Learn more about our approach to navigating these requirements.
How TrustTech helps organizations prepare for the EUDI Wallet
Preparing for the EU Digital Identity Wallet requires translating complex technical standards and compliance requirements into concrete decisions about systems, processes, and infrastructure. The ID Connector is an integration that lets relying parties accept every certified European wallet, whatever Member State issued it, for identification, login and qualified signing. EUDI Wallet acceptance comes first; the same interface also carries other IDs, such as national eIDs, bank IDs and identity documents, inside and outside the EU.
TrustTech works with organizations across financial services, government, healthcare, and pharma to get them ready for the EUDI Wallet ecosystem. Specifically, the ID Connector can help your organization with:
- Accepting every relevant notified EUDI Wallet, regardless of the issuing member state or wallet provider
- Verifying issuer signatures against national trusted lists that form part of the EU List of Trusted Lists
- Checking attestation revocation status and validating wallet unit attestations as part of a complete verification flow
- Enforcing the registered attribute scope so that only data covered by your relying-party registration is requested
- Connecting to a qualified trust service provider for qualified electronic signing where required
- Supporting reuse of verified identity data across identification, login, and onboarding flows
Whether you are assessing the implications of the 24 December 2026 deadline for public bodies or preparing for the Article 5f obligation that applies to regulated private sectors from 24 December 2027, the ID Connector provides the technical integration to make wallet acceptance practical. Get in touch to discuss how your organization can prepare for the future of digital identity in Europe.