TSA Confirms REAL ID Deadline Extension

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has officially extended its Jan. 22, 2018 deadline for the implementation of the REAL ID Act.

In an interview with Business Insider, the TSA confirmed that it would not start requiring passports to travel domestically from states not in compliance with the REAL ID Act until Oct. 1, 2020.

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The news confirms statements from industry insiders who spoke to Travel Market Report in November about the upcoming January 2018 deadline.

“We are cautiously optimistic that DHS will continue to grant state extensions in short order and that we will not see widespread travel disruptions come January 2018,” Genevieve Strand, American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) manager, government and industry affairs, said at the time.

Ultimately, the news means that travelers from the states still not in compliance and without a deadline extension — Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington — will not have to worry about traveling domestically without a passport until October 2020 at the earliest. Each of those states, according to Business Insider, have been granted extensions.

The news also means that agents will no longer have to wonder whether or not to advise clients traveling domestically to get a passport, as all states now are either in compliance or are operating under a DHS extension.

About half of the states in America are not in compliance with the new and stricter federal ID standards. States in full compliance as of Nov. 20, 2017, are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

States granted an extensive until October 2018 are: Alaska, California, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington.

American Samoa, Guam, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island and the U.S. Virgin Islands are awaiting a review of their extension requests from DHS.