As it stands, flying domestically is significantly easier than flying internationally. There’s no worry about making sure you have an up-to-date passport with a certain amount of blank pages left for stamping, or paying exorbitant prices for said passport. If you are driving a car around, you can be almost certain that you have the ability to walk into an airport, buy a ticket to a US location, and hop on a plane with no issues as far as identification goes.
But now, if you live in one of nine states, you might have to start worrying about additional identification to fly domestic starting in 2018. The following states, as it currently stands, do not fulfill the TSA’s (and by extension the federal governments) security standards for ID’s. They are:
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Montana
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Washington
If you reside in any of the above states, when 2018 arrives you will either have to switch to a military ID, permanent resident card, or get a passport should you not have one handy already. There is a chance that these states could change their licenses to include anti-counterfeit protections and other required specifications, but that legislation takes time and might not be processed — even if the states wanted to — by a little over a year from now.
The TSA is giving people plenty of time to change their form of ID before they travel in 2018, as if anyone traveling this season has probably seen the signs alerting people of the impending rules.
WTF? pic.twitter.com/qyg9sqqheP
— Carrie Raisler (@TVandDinners) December 21, 2016
However, there’s no way 2018 won’t have at least a dozen headlines about people from these areas of the US getting very confused about not being able to get through security with just a license. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
(viaTIME)
