1 week Ago By Joe Kunzler
The United States' Transportation Security Administration ( TSA ) is completing years of work to get US citizens using domestic United States (US) commercial aviation to use only identification cards (ID cards) that verify they are traveling as who the traveler says they are starting on May 7. Most states have enhanced drivers' licenses or identification cards that meet the requirements to access US government facilities, such as airport security areas and US military bases. Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.
As the TSA has explained why REAL ID on their website , "REAL ID is a national set of standards...
The purpose of REAL ID is to make our identity documents more consistent and secure." As such, REAL ID-compliant identification, such as an enhanced driver's license, enhanced identification card, or more, as will be explained below, is required for any adult to board a commercial flight to any United States destination starting May 7. The REAL ID effort started in 2005 by an act of Congress in response to the 9/11 Commission's recommendations after their investigation of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks .
Anyone without Real ID-compliant identification on and after May 7 will be denied entry into US-staffed airport security spaces, among other US government locations. What identification meets Real ID standards? Below is a list of what is acceptable REAL ID to board an airliner, according to the Washington State Department of Licensing : Enhanced Driver's License (EDL) Enhanced identification card (EID) U.S.
Military ID U.S. Passport U.
S. Passport Card Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) Federally recognized tribal-issued photo ID U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Authorization Card (I-766) Foreign Passport Most states use a star marking for the REAL ID. However, Washington State has decided to use the US flag, as per an above TSA graphic. Either an EDL or EID works for Real ID.
Where do American citizens get a real ID? US citizens can get a real ID card by going to tsa.gov/real-id and clicking on your state or territory for specific directions. Also worth noting is some US states require up to three weeks to deliver a real ID card, so readers should not delay if planning on flying in the United States in May.
Below is a basic explainer from the TSA: The Trump Administration has been clear no further delays the Real ID requirement will be granted. The United States Secretary of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem recorded this public safety announcement (PSA): A simplistic history of why Real ID implementation Real ID did not come about because of a Trump Administration initiative. Rather, Real ID started as a 9/11 Commission report recommendation on page 390, which states, "Secure identification should begin in the United States.
The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists.
" As such, the US Congress passed the Real ID Act of 2005 setting federal standards for identification. However, technological challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors kept delaying the law's actual implementation. The delays were such that the proposed TSA regulation did not emerge until the last year of the Biden Administration.
TSA proposes phased REAL ID enforcement, pushing full compliance deadline to May 2027 to ease travel disruptions while raising public awareness. In fact, the final rulemaking was completed on January 13 , with seven days left in the Biden Administration. Comments taken in 2024 on the rulemaking totaled 31,764 from stakeholders, including individual residents living in the US.
On May 7, Real ID becomes the US identification standard After years of hard work, United States airports will have mutually agreed standards for identification to fly domestically. These standards came about because of the September 11, 2001 tragedy - and with no-fly lists increasingly necessary, the ability to identify potential passengers to enforce no-fly lists is concurrently increasingly necessary. There is also some lobbying for a significantly improved national no-fly list by Delta Air Lines and among other interest groups, the US flight attendant unions.
A national no-fly list that bans anyone who commits a crime on a commercial aircraft will require standardized identification to enforce fairly. But this is only one reason for Real ID. Another reason for Real ID is to protect against identity theft and fraud.
A national standard on identification makes more difficult efforts to impersonate someone else to for instance steal or stalk. Ultimately, Real ID promises to make the United States of America's skies safer and provide more integrity on enforcement. However, just as implementing Real ID took substantial time - expect the Summer of 2025 to come with extra time verifying identification before boarding.
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