ISO/IEC 18013-5 Mobile Driver's License (mDL)

What it is

ISO/IEC 18013-5 defines the mobile driver's license (mDL): a driver's license or state ID issued to a phone wallet in a standardized, cryptographically verifiable format. It is one of the most widely deployed verifiable credential formats in the world because governments are shipping it into consumer wallets like Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. The companion standard 18013-7 extends presentation to online and unattended scenarios.

How it works

• Data model: the license is a signed set of data elements (name, age, portrait, license class) using a mobile security object that a verifier checks against the issuing authority's public key.
• Selective disclosure: the holder can share only what a transaction needs. Buying alcohol can reveal an over-21 flag and a photo without exposing the address or document number. This maps directly to selective disclosure and the mobile driver's license glossary entry.
• In person (18013-5): presentation over Bluetooth or NFC to a reader, working offline.
• Online (18013-7): presentation to a website or app, increasingly bridged to OpenID4VP so mDLs flow through the same rails as other credentials.

Status

ISO/IEC 18013-5 was published in 2021 and 18013-7 in 2024. In the United States, the AAMVA digital trust ecosystem and TSA acceptance at airport checkpoints have driven rollout across a growing list of states. The EU's EUDI Wallet references mDL alongside SD-JWT VC. Track which jurisdictions have shipped in the digital IDs by country directory.

When to use it

mDL matters to any verifier that checks government ID: age-restricted retail, identity verification and KYC, travel, and account onboarding. Accepting mDL can replace scanning and storing a full ID image with a signed, minimal, tamper-evident presentation, which reduces both fraud and data-retention risk.

Pitfalls

• Reader and relying-party support is still uneven; plan a fallback to physical or document-scan verification.
• In-person and online profiles differ; build for the presentation channel you actually need.
• mDL is an ID document format, not a full identity system. Pair it with your existing identity verification workflow.

Related

Guides: reusable identity and KYC with verifiable credentials. Directories: digital IDs by country, identity verification vendors. Standards: Verifiable Credentials, OpenID4VC, eIDAS 2 / EUDI Wallet. Glossary: mobile driver's license, digital identity wallet.