France Identité is the French State's app that turns your national identity card into a digital identity. With it, you sign a document at the qualified level — the legal equivalent of a handwritten signature — with no subscription and without going anywhere.
What you need
- A French national identity card in credit-card format, the one with a chip. It is issued to French nationals only.
- A smartphone able to read the chip contactlessly (NFC), with the France Identité app installed.
- A certified digital identity in the app. Certification involves a check of your identity at a town hall: this step is done in advance, it cannot be improvised on the day of signing.
If you still have the old paper identity card, or no French identity card at all, France Identité is not available to you: Identité Numérique La Poste, our level 6, produces the same qualified signature.
How the signing works
- On 1-signature, you upload your document, place your signature and choose level 5.
- When it is time to sign, you are asked to prove your identity with France Identité.
- On your phone, the app reads the chip on your card: you hold it against the back of the phone, and confirm with your code.
- The signature is applied, and you download the signed document and its evidence file.
You can start the signing from a computer or from the phone itself. Either way, proof of identity happens on the phone: keep it within reach, with your card.
Why it is a qualified signature
Your identity is attested by the State, from your identity card: this is what allows a qualified certificate to be issued in your name, and therefore a qualified signature within the meaning of the eIDAS Regulation. It benefits from a presumption of reliability: whoever challenges it must prove that it is not valid.
If the identity does not match
Your name is supplied by France Identité, not by what you typed. If it does not match the name you declared on 1-signature, the signing stops without using your stars. Check what you typed, and start again.
