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New Rule:
Residents In Nine States Will Need Passports For
Domestic Flights in 2018
By Lea Lane
October 09,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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When traveling, it's best to plan
ahead whenever you can. For example, you may have
thought you don't need a passport because you don't
travel outside the United States. But for residents
of nine states, that will change at the beginning of
2018 for any commercial flight,
whether international or domestic.
As
reported by Travel and Leisure, nine states
will
no longer allow
travelers to board an airplane with just their state
issued driver’s licenses as of January 22, 2018. To
get past TSA security checkpoints, another form of
identification will be required: passport, permanent
resident card/green card or a military ID.
The Real ID
Act of 2005 states that state-issued IDs from these
nine states do not meet the minimum security
standards of the federal government:
-
Kentucky
- Maine
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Minnesota
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Missouri
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Montana
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Oklahoma
-
Pennsylvania
- South
Carolina
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Washington
Back in
December, it was announced that signage would start
being placed around the security checkpoints in
airports to remind travelers of what is to come.
With just a few months until the Real ID Act goes
into full effect, it is time to start planning now
and look into getting your passport.
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Some
states have started working on offering
federally approved issued IDs that would not
require a passport for domestic air travel.
Check with your local government office to see
if there is a different type of ID you can apply
for.
These posters are
huge reminders that 2018 is not nearly as far
away as it seems. On January 22, 2018, the
enforcement for those nine states will go into
effect, and by 2020, even more people will end
up needing a passport, as confirmed by the
official website
of the TSA.
This
means that if you’re going to take a flight and
you have a state-issued ID from one of those
nine states, you will need a passport to go
anywhere. That includes going to the next state,
across the country, or even to Walt Disney
World, as all domestic travel is included in
these new standards.
Yes,
traveling by air seems to have been made more
difficult by the federal government, just as it
has been made more complicated because of the
need to remove our shoes at security check-in.
But this new move is considered another way to
make traveling safer, and another example of the
new normal.
Again,
to be clear, The Real ID Act is going to
maintain that the residents of the nine
included states must have another form of ID,
most typically a passport, other than their
state-issued driver’s licenses for international
and domestic flights.
If this
applies to you, start applying for a passport
now. 2018 isn’t too far away. And there will be
a last-minute rush for sure.
Follow me
@lealane,
or on Instagram, where I'm
Travelea; and
check out Amazon for my latest book in paperback
and on Kindle,
Travel Tales I Couldn't Put in
the Guidebooks
This
article was originally published by
Forbes
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See
also -
Jazz great, former Oscar
Peterson drummer Alvin Queen, denied entry into USA:
New York native Alvin Queen was recently notified
that U.S. Homeland Security will not allow him to
enter the United States to perform at a prestigious,
long-planned concert in Washington.
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