A long-awaited U.S. travel document rule is weeks away from being enforced, and the travel industry must prepare accordingly for resulting challenges.
The Real ID Act, originally passed by Congress in 2005 to set new standards for travel documents, is finally going into effect on May 7 after two decades of legislation revisions and delays. The most recent delay was caused by the pandemic, leaving the government to postpone Real ID enforcement from 2023 to 2025.
The new requirement — which requires travelers using a state-issued ID or driver's license to have upgraded their credentials to a Real ID — is expected to cause longer security lines at airports as well as backup at local Department of Motor Vehicles locations across the country.
State-by-state compliance varies widely, with 99% of Marylanders having Real IDs already to only 57% of Massachusetts residents ready for the new rule, according to data from USA Today. According to the Transportation Security Administration, 81% of travelers use Real IDs at U.S. checkpoints, as of April 11. The remaining 19% represents hundreds of thousands of travelers every day.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has rolled out an online tool for individuals to verify if their ID passes muster, but in general, most of the U.S.'s Real IDs have a star in the upper right corner. TSA will still accept more than a dozen other forms of ID — passport, passport card, permanent resident card and more, which are all listed online.
Speaking with a Forbes reporter, an unnamed senior TSA official explained that repercussions of the new requirement — such as longer security lines — will depend on the airport.
“We are used to dealing with people who lose their wallets and IDs,” the official told Forbes, “and we have ways to vet passengers and make sure we’re satisfied the person standing in front of us is the person they say they are.”
“The goal is not to impact those passengers who are prepared with their Real ID, passport or another acceptable form of ID,” the official added.
Airlines are concerned with how the new rule will affect business, with United Airlines COO Andrew Nocella expressing his hope that the enforcement date is again delayed on the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We knew it was going to be complex to implement, but we weren’t going to kick the can down the road anymore,” the TSA official told Forbes. “It’s been 20 years. We are doing this.”
On the horizon
It's not just the U.S. that will have travelers facing new rules this year. The European Union is rolling out a similarly delayed two-part travel requirement — the first wave is expected later this year.
Originally expected to go into effect in November 2024, the EU's Entry/Exit System is an automated IT system for short-term, non-EU nationals that screens them each time they cross the external borders of of the following European countries using the system: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
EES is now planned to roll out in October, with a specific date to be determined.
Estimated to take effect six months after EES, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, or ETIAS, is a new entry requirement for short-term travelers entering the 30 European countries that don't already require a visa. While not a visa itself, ETIAS is an authorization that travelers will need to apply and pay for ahead of their trip.
The ETIAS application process, which will be available online, will allow travelers to stay in the European countries requiring ETIAS for up to 90 days within any 180-day period.
The two measures are expected to eventually speed up border crossings and limit passport stamps between the specified countries, but initially delays are expected as travelers will need to set up fingerprints and have their photos taken.