TSA Allowing Expired ID as Acceptable Checkpoint Documentation

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is relaxing it’s traveler identification rules in light of the impact of COVID-19.

TSA’s page dedicated to the pandemic states: “If your driver’s license or state-issued ID expired on or after March 1, 2020, and you are unable to renew at your state driver’s license agency, you may still use it as acceptable identification at the checkpoint. TSA will accept expired driver’s licenses or state-issued ID a year after expiration or 60 days after the duration of the emergency, whichever is longer.”

This is a move away from TSA’s strict REAL ID Act policy which aimed to tighten controls on ID documentation. The original October 1 2020 REAL ID deadline is unfeasible while the pandemic disrupts services, and the travel industry does not need any more confusion at this time. TSA has therefore pushed its REAL ID deadline to October 1, 2021.

Read more at TSA

Kylie Bielby

Kylie Bielby has more than 20 years' experience in reporting and editing a wide range of security topics, covering geopolitical and policy analysis to international and country-specific trends and events. Before joining GTSC's Homeland Security Today staff, she was an editor and contributor for Jane's, and a columnist and managing editor for security and counter-terror publications.

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