This kept happening this year, at city hall, when signing a new lease, and when opening a bank account, and I couldn’t get a satisfying answer from the people who were in charge of writing down my ID number. Since it happened today again, I have to ask.
In Germany, I get most of my official business done using my Cypriot national ID card. The card has two numbers printed at the front, [as seen here](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/prado/en/CYP-BO-04001/image-248626.html).
The number on the top right, prefixed with ‘CR’ in this version of the card, is the document serial number. Both the number and the prefix changes every time you renew your card. We don’t use that number for anything in Cyprus, it’s just there.
The number at the bottom right, a ten-digit numerical sequence is the Cypriot ID number. It’s a unique identifier and it’s stable throughout your life, first issued when you register a birth. It’s what we consider to be our ID number and that’s what you have to provide for identification purposes in Cyprus.
German officials always look at my document number. When I correct them, e.g. at the city hall for address registration, they insist that they are actually correct and that my “ID number” is actually the prefixed number, the document serial number. This is done so consistently and they never hesitate to reject my correction, that I’ve come to doubt everything I know about ID cards.
I wonder what will happen if e.g. my bank decides to re-verify my identity in a year and they find out that I now have a new document serial number because I renewed my ID card.
I see that [the German ID card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Neuer_deutscher_Personalausweis_ab_1._November_2010%2C_Vorder-_und_R%C3%BCckseite_%28Muster%29.jpg/1920px-Neuer_deutscher_Personalausweis_ab_1._November_2010%2C_Vorder-_und_R%C3%BCckseite_%28Muster%29.jpg) also has two numbers printed on it, and they have similar formats. The top one is also a serial number, but the bottom one is labelled “Access Number” (?) and I’m not sure how to understand that.
I can only guess that Zugansnummer is not considered to be the Ausweis-Nr. and that’s why everyone insists to ignore my ID number, because by accident it’s printed in a similar position? Is then the document serial number what Germany uses for citizen identification? That probably changes every 10 years when you renew your ID though.
4 comments
The one in the top right corner is your ID number.
Yes the serial number is always used and yes it changes when you get a new ID.
I can just talk about my experiemce as a german. I never used the number on the bottom. Tbh i was surprised that there was one when i looked at the picture.
One reason for using the serial number is that as soon as you loose your passport it is marked invalid in the systems. So by using the serial number you make sure, that it is really the current valid ID and not someone trying to use a stolen one.
When they take that number, they have more info:
* Who you are
* Which ID you were using (if someone stole it, and used it instead of you, it can be voided)