Your Driver’s License might not work for Air Travel soon
For people from nine states, flying is about to get a little more complicated. The days of using your Driver’s License as a form of ID are coming to a close.
Back in 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act which gave states certain requirements and standards to be used to combat terrorism in the issuance of ID cards and Driver’s Licenses. To this date, 9 states have not complied with the regulations and therefore come January 22, 2018, their ID’s won’t be valid for getting on an airplane.
Don’t expect security lines to be short like this anymore
There are 9 states that aren’t in compliance, so if you do live here, expect to get a new form of government issued ID if you wanna jump on a plane! They are:
Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington
from the DHS website
from the DHS website
What can I do?
This could, of course, lead to some serious problems on January 23rd if people aren’t aware of the changes. To that end, the TSA has started displaying the above posters in security lines since December’s holiday travel rush.
If you think that living in one of the 41 states not listed means you’re exempt, think again. By 2020 all travellers will need to have a REAL ID compliant document, so expect more changes to be on the horizon.
If you ask me, this is a perfect opportunity to get signed up for Global Entry. Not only does it get you Pre Check, you get an awesome Global Entry government issued ID that is perfectly acceptable.
March 1, 2017
RFID implant, problem solved.
I usually bring passport as backup.