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What You Need to Know About Real ID and Travel

Starting May 7, 2025, travelers will need the upgraded driver’s licenses for security screening

Kansas Real ID
Most states mark Real ID cards with a gold or black star in the top right corner of the driver’s license. As of May 7, 2025, travelers will no longer be able to use a regular driver’s license to board a domestic flight.
Associated Press
By

Christina Ianzito and Ken Budd,

 
AARP
Published September 16, 2021
/ Updated December 06, 2024

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin enforcing the Real ID law on May 7, 2025. As of that date, you can no longer use a regular driver’s license to board a domestic flight. 

Conceived in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Real ID law requires people to show security-enhanced IDs to pass through airport security checkpoints or to enter certain federal facilities, such as military bases, once the regulations begin to be enforced. This requirement led to the Real ID, which is an enhanced driver’s license or state ID card. Sometimes called the Star Card, because most states mark Real ID cards with a gold or black star in the top right corner, it must include an encoded “machine readable zone,” like a passport’s, with a person’s scannable information.

Travelers also will be able to use passports, passport cards or certain other federal documents as an alternative to a Real ID. 

The DHS has spent years on its Real ID public information campaign, but many people remain confused over how to get the cards and what they are.

“Most savvy travelers know that they’ll need a Real ID to board a plane. … The people most affected will be infrequent travelers,” says Michelle Couch-Friedman, founder and CEO of advocacy organization Consumer Rescue. “Their mother gets sick and they have to get on a plane. They don’t have a Real ID. … They don’t know that they need a special ID just to fly domestically.” Her prediction: “There will need to be a separate section of the airport for all the people who are denied boarding and waiting to make their complaints.”

Many of those travelers could be 50-plus. Thirty-eight percent of domestic trips made by Americans age 50-59 in 2024 were expected to be by plane, second only to car travel, according to research from AARP.

Here’s how to prepare for the May 7 deadline.

A few basics about Real ID:

  • To get a Real ID, you need to present documents to your motor vehicle department proving your age and identity, Social Security number and address. That generally means bringing a birth certificate or passport, a Social Security card or tax form such as a W-2, and two proofs of address. If you’ve changed your name through marriage, you’ll need a marriage certificate.
  • Although the Real ID is also a driver’s license, the old-style driver’s license is still lawful for driving and still an option in many states. New Jersey, for example, continues to issue standard state licenses marked with the words “Not for ‘REAL ID’ purposes.”
  • A proposed federal rule would allow the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to consider a phased approach to Real ID enforcement, but don’t count on it. “Unfortunately, some travelers seem to believe the deadline has been extended,” says TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston via email. “TSA fully intends to begin Real ID enforcement on May 7, 2025,” he says. “Every air traveler 18 years of age and older must have a Real ID-compliant ID or another form of acceptable ID at airport checkpoints.”
  • Alternative IDs include passports, passport cards, U.S. military IDs, an ID from the federal Trusted Traveler Program (such as a Global Entry card) and Real ID-compliant mobile driver’s licenses. Five states — Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington — offer Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL), which are also acceptable alternatives to Real ID and provide proof of U.S. citizenship. For international travel, you’ll still need a passport.
  • Don’t assume a Real ID is acceptable for all types of travel. In 2023, a woman contacted Couch-Friedman about an ID-related cruise mishap. The traveler thought a Real ID would work as identification for a cruise from Baltimore to the Caribbean and back. But when the woman and her husband arrived at the ship, they weren’t allowed on board. The reason: Real ID doesn’t offer proof of citizenship, so it’s not acceptable for a closed-loop cruise (a cruise that begins and ends in the same U.S. port). Acceptable ID would have included an Enhanced Driver’s License, passport, or birth certificate.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Aug. 23, 2019. It was updated to reflect new information about Real ID.

Christina Ianzito covers scams and fraud, and is the books editor for aarp.org and AARP The Magazine. Also a longtime travel writer and editor, she received a 2020 Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.

Ken Budd has written for National Geographic Traveler, Travel+Leisure, The Washington Post Magazine and many more. He is the author of a memoir, The Voluntourist.

AARP Travel Center

Or Call: 1-800-675-4318

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