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Carry Your Physical REAL ID When You Travel in 2025!
If you have traveled by air in the past year, it is highly likely that you saw one or more of the brightly illuminated Transportation Security Administration (TSA) notices of the May 7, 2025, deadline requiring passengers to present REAL ID compliant drivers’ licenses (DLs) or compliant IDs such as national Passports or Enhanced DLs.
TSA’s Domestic Aviation Operations is responsible for about 440 Federalized airports, screening more than 2 million passengers daily, and totaling over 815 million passengers annually. At most of those 440 airports, the passenger identity confirmations are assisted by electronic systems in which the inspections are assisted by ID scanning screens or devices into which IDs can be inserted to confirm the validity of the physical document as well as the information on it. Most of these machines were built and installed prior to the advent of mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs). In the past two years, following extensive pilot programs at three airports, TSA has fine-tuned new electronic machines that can read mDLs as well as physical identity documents. i.e., drivers’ licenses.
In 2024, TSA began deploying the new ID scanners and training the TSA passenger inspectors in their use, along with related connectivity to DMV sourced data. This has been a complex endeavor that required care to ensure reliability. Consequently at this date, only 31 airports in the USA are listed by TSA as having the capability to verify passenger identities by reading digital information. TSA will add digital screening at other large airports in 2024, as rapidly as staffing and budget constraints allow. (See list compilation below for those already prepared.) All DMVs advise you to carry your physical REAL ID on your person to ensure you can move quickly through TSA checkpoints.
On September 27th, 2024, I was caught at the Atlanta airport in the midst of flooding from Hurricane Helene. Although I arrived at the airport more than two hours prior to boarding, I didn’t get through TSA security in time to catch my flight, due entirely to long lines at TSA checkpoints. This was despite being in the TSA PreCheck lines.
Many of my fellow passengers shared my fate, some due to arriving at the airport with their cell phones containing mobile IDs, but without their physical driver’s licenses. In the press of congestion, an overloaded wi-fi, and the physical limits on TSA personnel, many missed their flights. I observed more than a dozen fellow travelers who only had mobile IDs in the TSA PreCheck line. These travelers were pulled from the line because the electronic readers were unable to verify their passenger information. They were not happy, and likely were not able to fly out of Atlanta’s airport that day as TSA personnel were so overwhelmed by the crush of passengers.
I was fortunate that United Airlines booked me out on the next flight to DCA, as that day – according to FlightAware – more than 170 flights into or out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were canceled, and more than 500 flights were delayed.
Weather events remain disruptive, and affect the reliability of digital systems, so carry your physical ID when you travel!
• My experience in Atlanta demonstrates that weather or other circumstances can create surprise problems when only having an mDL with you, so carry your physical card. TSA can verify the physical ID using the readers in place at every airport.
• There is also the possibility that in the months following May 7th, 2025, mDLs will NOT be accepted at TSA checkpoints because the regulatory waiver process will not be completed by any state. And the waiver process is the only way TSA will be able to accept an mDL. Per federal regulations final in 2024, no state’s mDLs will be deemed compliant unless the respective states have received a formal granted a waiver by TSA.
The following is a compilation of links and summary information to help readers get ready for the REAL ID deadline on May 7, 2025.
The Transportation Security Administration continues to roll out equipment and training so that additional airport are able to accept REAL ID compliant mDLs, once the states receive their respective waivers. A mostly complete list of those airports follows, and readers should save the link to the TSA map of airports that are capable of verifying digital ids.
https://www.dhs.gov/real-id/real-id-mobile-drivers-licenses-mdls
“Mobile driver’s licenses,” or “mDLs,” are digitized versions of the information on physical driver’s licenses and identification cards, and are stored on mobile electronic devices, such as smartphones.
mDLs Approved for Federal Use
Mobile IDs from the following states are now approved by TSA (see link for details: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia; https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id/participating-states
Most Federal agencies are at least twelve months away from having digital reading capability at their physical sites. In fact, with the exception of military bases and “secure federal facilities,” digital readers are few and far between at government buildings. The deadline for agencies to submit their planned locations for requiring REAL IDs for entry is May 7, 2025.
A recent posting from the Department of Homeland Security.
Not all Federal agencies are accepting mDLs. Before attempting to use an mDL, individuals should contact the agency they intend to visit to ask whether the agency accepts mDLs. To reduce risk of potential disruptions, TSA strongly encourages all mDL holders to carry their physical REAL ID cards in addition to their mDLs.
In conclusion, mDLs are the near future for controlled travel by airports, airlines and military bases, where reliable digital equipment and trained users are affordable and in place. Despite this, always carry your physical driver’s license or state- issued ID!
The 31 Airports in the United States where TSA can verify passengers’ identities with mobile IDs, including TSA Pre-check Touch IDs and digital passports, as of January, 2025 – from TSA Digital ID Map 1/21/2025 listed by city
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/digital-id/map#CID
Atlanta International Airport (Hartsfield-Jackson), Georgia
Baltimore/Washington International Maryland, (Thurgood Marshall) Airport
Cedar Rapids, (Eastern Iowa Airport), Iowa
Charlestown West Virginia International-Yeager Airport
Chicago, Illinois (O’Hare) International Airport
Cincinnati, Ohio (/Northern Kentucky) International Airport
Columbus, Ohio International Airport (John Glenn)
Dallas/ Fort Worth, Texas International Airport
Denver, Colorado International Airport
Detroit, Michigan Metropolitan Airport
Des Moines, Iowa International Airport
Dulles, Virginia International Airport
Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi International Airport
Honolulu, Hawaii Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
Huntington, Indiana Tri-State Airport
Jackson, Mississippi (Medgar Wiley Evers) International Airport
Las Vegas, Nevada (Harry Reid) International Airport
Los Angeles, California International Airport
Miami, Florida International Airport
New Orleans, Louisiana International Airport (Louis Armstrong)
Newark, New Jersey Liberty International Airport
New York JFK International Airport,
New York – LaGuardia Airport
Oklahoma City -OKC Will Rogers World- Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Richmond International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
San Juan, Puerto Rico (Luis Muñoz Marín) International Airport
San Jose Mineta International Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport
Washington, DC – National Ronald Reagan Airport
