Austria: Fees for documents such as passports, driving licenses and ID cards are likely to rise by 44%.

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Official documents such as ID cards and passports are generally valid for ten years. After that, they must be renewed if you want to travel abroad with them (in some countries, documents that have been expired for up to six months are accepted). At the moment, it may be particularly worthwhile to check the expiration date of your passport. The “current government” and government negotiators recently announced that they would be increasing federal fees – drastically – due to the large budget shortfall.
Due to the fee freeze, the Ministry of Finance has not made most official documents more expensive since 2011. This will now be compensated for and adjusted in line with the consumer price index.

According to Statistics Austria, this means a considerable 43.6 percent increase. The only exceptions to the adjustment are federal fees, which have also been regularly increased in recent years. These are, for example, the application for and granting Austrian citizenship or entry and residence permits (e.g. visas). The plans for valorization have also already been reported to Brussels regarding budget consolidation.
It is not yet clear when this will be implemented, i.e. when the fees will actually increase. However, anyone who needs a new passport, driver’s license, or other documents should hurry as a precaution. For this reason, the rush at the offices is sometimes very high. In Vienna, you currently have to wait a good month for an appointment at the passport office.

Will the passport soon cost 109 euros instead of just under 75 euros?
An adjustment of around 44 percent will significantly impact your wallet (see chart). In future, a passport will cost 109 euros instead of the current 74.90 euros. An express passport will increase in price from 100 euros to around 144 euros. An emergency passport (one-day express passport) will soon cost 316 euros instead of the current 220 euros. An identity card currently costs 61.50 euros. With a valorization, it would suddenly be 88 euros.
The issue of a driving license will likely rise from 60.50 euros to 87 euros. In future, you will have to dig more than 50 euros deeper into your pockets for vehicle registration. While you currently pay just under 120 euros for this, the authorities and insurance registration offices will charge around 172 euros in future.
As I said, nothing is 100 percent fixed yet. However, given the large budget deficit, this is more than likely.