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BankID, Vipps Login, and MinID: Norway's Digital-ID Consortium for Newcomers
Document Checklist
fødselsnummer / D-nummer
Norwegian identity number (fødselsnummer or D-nummer)
Issuer: Skatteetaten via folkeregisteret. The Service Centre for Foreign Workers (SUA) bundles ID-control, tax-card issuance, and identity-number assignment in a single appointment.
Function: Required by every Norwegian electronic-ID scheme. MinID activation cannot start without it; BankID issuance requires it (with bank-by-bank variation in whether a D-nummer alone is enough); Vipps Login inherits the requirement through its BankID dependency.
Format: Eleven digits. A fødselsnummer is issued to residents registered under the national population register; a D-nummer is issued to people with a documented need for a Norwegian identifier who do not meet the residence threshold for population registration.
Without a fødselsnummer or D-nummer on file, no Norwegian eID scheme can issue a credential — assignment is a hard upstream dependency.
MinID aktiveringsbrev
Activation letter for MinID
Issuer: Digdir via Skatteetaten. Ordered online at aktiveringsbrev.minid.no; the English-language ordering page is available.
Delivery: By post to the folkeregister address registered with Skatteetaten; normal delivery within Norway is roughly 10 business days. D-nummer holders without a registered Norwegian residential address can order delivery to the nearest NAV office.
Activation window: The activation code printed in the letter is time-limited from the order date — request a fresh letter if the window has expired.
MinID is the publicly documented standalone bypass route for newcomers who do not yet have a Norwegian bank account.
Norwegian mobile phone number and email address
Function: Used by the MinID registration flow at registrer.minid.no to deliver one-time codes during login and to confirm contact details for the MinID app variant.
Norwegian phone number: Required by Vipps Login per the Vipps help portal prerequisites. A foreign phone number is generally not sufficient for Vipps but can be acceptable for MinID one-time codes depending on the activation flow.
Without a Norwegian phone number, MinID can still be activated against an international number for the SMS-code path; Vipps Login cannot.
bankkundeforhold
Customer relationship at a participating Norwegian bank
Function: BankID is bank-issued — the consortium does not sell BankID directly to the public. Universal prerequisites are a customer relationship at a participating Norwegian bank and an in-person identity check at a branch with a passport.
Bank-by-bank D-nummer policy: Eligibility for BankID with a D-nummer alone varies materially between Norwegian banks. Some major banks require a fødselsnummer; some regional savings-bank groups accept D-nummer-only customers; some accept D-nummer combined with a valid biometric passport. The bank's onboarding officer is the authoritative source on current policy.
Vipps Login also inherits this prerequisite because its identity proofing is anchored on a previously issued BankID — the bank relationship gates both BankID and Vipps Login but not MinID.
Passport
Function: Required at the bank's in-person BankID identity check. The bank verifies the passport in person before issuing the BankID credential.
Biometric passport: Some banks require a biometric passport (machine-readable chip) for D-nummer-only customers as additional identity assurance during BankID issuance.
A residence permit or other secondary document is commonly requested alongside the passport at the bank appointment; the passport is the primary ID instrument named on the BankID help pages.
Smartphone for the eID app
MinID app: Current preferred MinID variant. Installed from the App Store or Google Play and registered against the fødselsnummer or D-nummer.
BankID app: Current default BankID variant. Activated with a code unit issued by the bank during onboarding; biometric unlock (Face ID, Touch ID, or Android fingerprint) is configured during setup.
SIM-stored BankID: BankID on mobile (SIM-stored variant) has been phased out. The BankID app is the active mobile variant; BankID på kort (smartcard with reader) remains available for desktop-only use.
Without a smartphone, MinID can still be used with the printed one-time codes from the activation letter; BankID with a smartcard reader remains a non-mobile alternative.
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