Dear Sir or Madam, I welcome the launch of your portal and I have decided to let you know about my or my wife's problems that we face whenever we travel outside or inside the European Union.  My wife is a Colombian citizen with a permanent residence permit in Slovenia. So far, so good... It's complicated by her permanent (formerly temporary) residence permit card in Slovenia. Excuse my directness, but my monthly city bus pass, which I used in my student days, had a better presentation. The residence permit card for third-country nationals is made of plain paper/cardboard and laminated. I believe that it has the appropriate protections, but at first glance it looks as if it was made by me. And here is where the problem arises, because this card is not taken seriously anywhere in European airports. I travel with my wife several times, and we go through Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and the police officers at these airports look at this card with great astonishment. They usually put us aside and take the time to check the authenticity of the card. I assume that all third-country nationals who have a residence permit in Slovenia and who are travelling outside or into the European Union face similar problems. After speaking to officials at the Aliens Office, I was told that such an identity card is required by a European directive. I wonder here if I can get the exact details of this European directive (title, number, etc.), because my brother-in-law, who has a temporary residence permit in Italy, is also a Colombian national (third country) and has a plastic residence permit card. If I am to judge by the answer given by our officials, then either they are in breach of the European directive in Italy, or Italy is not in the European Union. Another excuse is that the residence permit card is not a stand-alone document anyway and that it is always valid in conjunction with a passport. This is true, of course, but it is practically the most important document that a third-country national needs when entering the European Union. My suggestion: a card made of plastic, such as our identity card or the residence permit card of citizens of other European countries that are not in the European Union, would be much more appropriate. I believe that such a card may have much less protection, but it is taken much more seriously by any foreign police officer. My case may seem very minor to you, but to me it is a major obstacle to travel and it is also linked to costs. The last time it happened was at the airport in Paris, where the police took half an hour to check my wife's residence permit with a police officer, his boss, and the boss of the boss. It was mainly for this reason that we missed the connecting flight and, of course, we then had to wait until the next day for a new flight and, of course, buy a new ticket. So we had extra costs for the night and the new ticket - and nobody can reimburse us for that. And when I ask myself, who is to blame for these extra costs? The policeman at the airport, me or the State of Slovenia ?  I believe that in my case you see only an increase in the costs of the state or its institutions, but the plastic card is given to citizens of other European countries (outside the EU), e.g. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc. I hope that my proposal will not fall on deaf ears, as it has so far with the bureaucrats at the Aliens Office.  Thank you for your reply. Have a nice day,