Anyone who has passed through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport checkpoint in the past year has probably seen signs warning that TSA ID requirements will be changing effective January 18, 2018.
In a nutshell, some state's driver's licenses may soon no longer be valid to grant a passenger access to domestic flights.
The switch is part of a regulation known as Real ID, first initiated in 2005, that mandates every state issue more-secure ID cards to its residents.
To qualify for the new ID, states must require residents provide a photo ID, a birth certificate (or other documentation), proof of residency, social security number and proof of address to receive a Real ID-compliant driver's license. In California, for example, that process will require an in-person application.
Implementing the new infrastructure has been a lengthy, costly process for many states, and nearly half are not yet fully compliant with the new regulations.
Which means there has been a lot of confusion among domestic travelers as to what kind of ID they will need to use by the end of January.
In particular, nine states-Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington-were about to become non-compliant and their residents were being cautioned that they might be required to carry a federally issued document such as a passport in order to board domestic flights by the end of January.
On Thursday, however, TSA confirmed to Business Insider that the regulations were officially being pushed back to October 11, 2018, giving residents of non-compliant states at least an eight-month reprieve to get their flying papers in order.
According to SF Gate, there are a couple dozen states and territories that will be non-compliant by the October 11 deadline, but some of those states have already been granted an additional extension. In those cases, residents will only be required to carry Real ID-compliant documentation by October 2020.
SF Gate also cautions that just because a traveler lives in a compliant state, doesn't necessarily guarantee that their driver's license qualifies for Real ID. Older documentation will still need to be replaced with the newer, more secure ID cards.
How to tell if your license qualifies for Real ID? Check for a gold star in the upper right-hand corner of the card.
This isn't the first extension granted by the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security. In January 2016, DHS announced a two-year delay, pushing the deadline to January 2018.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
