The doctorate in the passport should go to another place. The aim is to follow international customs, it is said about the traffic light plans. In addition, the “Dr.” causing irritation among foreign border authorities at this point.
The federal government wants to delete the doctorate in front of the last name from identity cards and passports and have it entered somewhere else. Several media outlets report this unanimously.
The traffic light coalition is following international customs, reports the Düsseldorf newspaper “Rheinische Post”, citing a regulation from the Federal Ministry of the Interior available to the editorial team. Accordingly, the title should in future be able to be entered in a newly created data field on the back of the identity card and passport.
Irritation among border authorities
Prefixing the letters “Dr.” According to the document, it could cause irritation among foreign border authorities “since the two letters are often mistaken for the first letters of the family name.” This leads to delays in border controls, the report says.
Furthermore, according to Rheinischer Post, the ministry justifies its approach by saying that the standard for travel documents of the United Nations International Aviation Organization (ICAO) does not provide for any entries other than the family name in the “name” data field. This has also been adopted as binding in the EU. In addition, there was recently a motion for a resolution by the coalition factions to make passports and ID cards compliant. This is now taken into account.
“The coalition has agreed on a procedure that takes up a central part of our criticism and clears up misunderstandings when reading identification documents abroad,” said Green Party parliamentary group leader Irene Mihalic to the Rheinische Post. Mihalic also confirmed the plan to the Saarbrücker Zeitung.
Björn Dake, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, February 14, 2024 11:08 a.m