The Transportation Security Administration is proposing an $18 payment for vacationers without a REAL ID to go by means of airport checkpoints.
The payment would cowl prices related to new expertise wanted to confirm the passenger’s id, TSA stated in a Thursday discover.
REAL ID – a driver’s license or identification card that meets federal safety requirements – became required for all air travel within the United States on May 7 after years of the deadline being pushed again.
The REAL ID Act, which was handed by Congress in 2005, enacted the 9/11 Commission’s suggestion that the federal authorities improve safety requirements for identification.
Under the newly proposed rule, vacationers without a REAL ID would be in a position to pay the payment and use a new biometric kiosk that could permit them entry to TSA checkpoints for 10 days, based on the discover within the Federal Register.
But paying to make use of the brand new “modernized alternative identity verification program” doesn’t assure entry, based on the discover.
When somebody chooses to make use of this system and gives the required data, “TSA will use the individual’s biographic and/or biometric information to verify identity and match the individual to their Secure Flight watch list result.”
“Individuals who verify their identity using TSA’s alternative identity verification process also may be subject to additional screening or experience delays,” the discover learn.
Passports are nonetheless an appropriate type of identification for each home and worldwide air journey, and non-REAL ID compliant licenses are nonetheless legitimate for driving and different identification functions exterior of the federal necessities.
The $18 payment per particular person is non-refundable, the discover reads.
“This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance, which was signed into law more than 20 years ago and finally implemented by Secretary Noem as of May 2025,” a TSA spokesperson instructed NCS. “TSA is working with stakeholders and partners to ensure both security and efficiency at our checkpoints. Additional guidance will be announced in the coming days.”
NCS has reached out to TSA for added data on when this proposed rule could take impact.