this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Privacy
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I usually ignore renewals as much as I can. My last ID card was 8 years overdue.
Fair enough. Any plan in case you need to leave (or flee) your country?
I live in the EU and thus I can travel pretty far away without having to ever show my ID card. Maybe it’s just personal experience but whenever I had to show it, no-one cared about it wasn’t valid anymore.
Another trick is acting stupid: “Oh, thank you! I didn’t notice! When would a normal person check that, eh? 🙂 … Right on next Monday I’ll going to renew it!” and then hasta la vista, we won’t meet ever again anyways.
The next time I have to renew it, is in 2031. I guess I won’t renew it till 2040.
depending on how you look, what your hair & skin colour is, you may be checked "randomly" while you're walking home or when you're crossing borders on a train. If your ID isn't valid, they won't just "not care about it"
that polite policeman passing you by with a "good day" would wake me up on the train to ~~check~~ harass me to see if i'm hiding who knows what in my testicles 🤬
your experience doesn't reflect Europe, it is a commentary about what you see in the mirror
… and even more where you cross the border. If I want to go (like in “just walk there”) from Poland to Germany, I could use this bridge for example:
It’s really just an ordinary bridge across a river, no border patrol, no ID check, nothing. Just walk from one country into another.
Or if I want to cross the border from Germany to France, I could just use that publicly accessible hiking path:
(Seen from French side, the barrier where the people sit is the whole border crossing point.) And this bridge with a view brings you from France to Spain.
Except border check points you’ll find luxury housing on French side and commercial buildings (stores and some warehouses) on Spain side.
At no point in that imaginary journey (now that I think about it, this would make a great road trip with hiking parts) you need your ID card when you travel to another country.
Long story short: It’s really easy to cross borders in the EU.
☞ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_perception
Schengen, lol.