Originally Posted by Aviatrix

Are you saying that identity cards were available to German expats at some time in the dim and distant past, but then stopped being available? If that is the case then this must have been in the very very very distant past - like: 40+ years ago. To my knowledge identity cards were not available to expats at any time between 1979 and 2009. From 2009 onwards German expats were able to obtain identity cards but had to travel to Germany to apply. Since 2013 identity cards have been available from some German embassies abroad.