In two years, the citizen service number (BSN) will disappear from the front of the passport holder page. In its place will be a QR code on the back of this page. Identity cards will then also feature a QR code on the back.
The measure is intended to combat identity fraud. State Secretary Knops of the Interior recently informed the House of Representatives about it.
Automatically readable
"The current placement leads to extra operations for citizens; they now have to cross out the BSN each time a copy of the passport has to be handed in to an agency that is not allowed to process the BSN. For this reason, I have recently investigated which solutions there are to make the BSN on the back of the holder page of the passport automatically readable and to remove it from the machine-readable strip on the front of the holder page," said Knops.
September
The BSN will become automatically readable via a QR code. "As a result, the BSN will no longer be present and copyable on the front of the holder page of the passport," Knops writes in his letter. A number of agencies will need about two years to implement the change within their processes. Knops expects to be able to announce the exact date in September.
