Which countries require ID to buy a SIM card?

Most of them. As of 2026, the large majority of countries require ID for local SIM activation, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria and Indonesia. Notable exceptions with no registration requirement include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Which countries require biometrics for a SIM card?

A growing list: China (facial recognition), India (Aadhaar biometrics), Nigeria (NIN-linked), Pakistan (fingerprint), Mexico (biometric verification under the 2026 law), Saudi Arabia, and others. Biometric SIM registration has roughly doubled worldwide since 2020.

Do tourists have to register SIM cards too?

In countries with registration laws, yes. Tourists register with their passport when buying a local SIM, including airport tourist SIMs. Travel eSIMs are roaming products and are exempt from local SIM registration in every country.

Can I avoid SIM registration legally?

Yes. Use a travel eSIM. Roaming products operate under carrier agreements rather than domestic SIM sales, so no local registration applies. It is the same reason your home SIM works abroad without registering it. This is legal everywhere; registration laws target domestic subscriptions.

Does the US require ID for SIM cards?

No. The United States has no federal SIM registration requirement, so prepaid SIMs can still be bought without ID. The same is true in the UK, Canada and a handful of other countries, making them outliers among major economies.

What happens if I use an unregistered SIM where registration is mandatory?

It will not activate, or it will be deactivated, because registration regimes are enforced at the carrier level at activation time. In some countries (e.g. Turkey with its IMEI rules), the device itself can also be blocked. Using a roaming travel eSIM instead is the legal way to skip the process.

SIM Card Registration Laws by Country (2026): The Complete Map

Two decades ago, buying a SIM card anonymously was normal almost everywhere. In 2026 it is the exception. Below is the full picture of SIM registration laws worldwide, plus the one legal loophole that works in every country on the list.

The global trend: registration is now the default

Roughly 155+ countries mandate some form of identity registration for SIM activation, and the direction is one-way: every year a few more countries join, and existing regimes add biometrics. Recent milestones:

Mexico (2026): mandatory ID verification with biometric components for new activations. We covered it in detail in our Mexico registration post
EU: no bloc-wide SIM law, but most member states register domestically; the broader surveillance trajectory is covered in our EU surveillance post
Africa and South Asia: SIM registration is now near-universal, usually tied to national ID systems

Country-by-country overview

No registration required (the shrinking list)

Country	Notes
United States	No registration; prepaid SIMs sold freely
United Kingdom	No registration
Canada	No registration
Ireland	No registration
Netherlands	No registration
Denmark	No registration
New Zealand	No registration

ID/passport required (Europe)

Germany: ID plus video-ident or in-person verification, one of Europe's strictest
France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal: passport/ID at activation
Sweden: prepaid registration mandatory since 2022 (BankID online, or in-store with a passport)
Turkey: passport for the SIM, plus the IMEI device registration regime with its 120-day rule

ID required (Asia-Pacific)

China: ID plus facial recognition
India: Aadhaar-linked biometrics
Thailand: passport, including airport tourist SIMs (details)
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan (voice SIMs), South Korea: ID registration
Australia: ID check at activation

ID required (Americas, Middle East, Africa)

Mexico: 2026 law, ID with biometric verification
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru: registration required
Saudi Arabia, UAE: ID/biometrics; note the UAE's VoIP call restrictions on top
Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Pakistan: registration, mostly tied to national ID; Nigeria and Pakistan use biometrics

Laws change; this table reflects mid-2026 and is updated as regimes evolve.

Why governments require it

The stated rationale is crime: untraceable numbers enable fraud, extortion and coordination of violence. Mexico's law followed years of extortion-by-phone, and Nigeria's followed kidnapping waves. The trade-off is that entire national populations (plus every tourist) end up in telecom identity databases that leak with depressing regularity.

The legal loophole: roaming eSIMs

Every registration regime above governs domestic SIM sales. International roaming sits outside them. It always has, since these laws predate mass travel eSIMs, and no country wants to force registration on arriving tourists' home carriers.

A travel eSIM rides that exemption. Because it is a roaming profile:

No passport, no ID, no biometrics, in any country
Same networks, same coverage as local users
Instant delivery, weeks before travel if you like

This is the model nadanada eSIMs are built on: 200+ countries, no account, no email, no KYC, payable in Bitcoin, Lightning or Monero. For the full picture of how no-KYC eSIMs work and why they are legal, read our no-KYC eSIM guide.