SEATTLE — Anyone taking a flight, mark down May 7, 2025, on your calendar. After years of delays, new ID regulations will take effect at TSA checkpoints.
In just weeks, getting through any checkpoint at an airport in America will require a Real ID. A Real ID is a form of ID, like a driver’s license or identification card, that is also a federally accepted form of identification. In Washington State, you can get an enhanced driver’s license to meet that requirement.
The TSA is warning people now that having a Real ID is a regulation that will be enforced on May 7, 2025.
Some travelers at SEA are already equipped with Real ID, including Todd Minor, who was dropping someone off for a flight out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). “It’s a new and sophisticated way to ensure citizenship here in the US, and it’s going to be on your ID. It’s almost like a passport card.” Minor says he knows that he most likely won’t get through any TSA checkpoint without a Real ID.
For others who made it through the security lines Wednesday, like Jeremy Spradlin, Real ID was a new term, “I have no idea it’s something new to me.”
He got through the lines Wednesday and learned he already has Real ID in the form of a Military ID which counts as Real ID, he also knows now what forms of identification will work, “I have an enhanced (driver’s license) as well, I have both … I am good to go.”
TSA Spokesperson, Lorie Dankers was at SEA talking about Real ID, and says not having one is not a strategy that travelers should count on, “nothing will negate the fact that those who do not have their enhanced driver’s license or passport here in the state of WA that you will face delays.”
Dankers broke down the new regulations Wednesday morning and said people without the Real IDs could face more screening and longer efforts to validate their identity. She says that it will take time, which most travelers don’t have. She also stressed that some people may not get through the process and may not be allowed through. Dankers says the only way to ensure your passage through a TSA checkpoint is to have a Real ID.
Adult passengers 18 and older will need to show a valid ID to travel.
The TSA website has a list of what’s acceptable, but an enhanced driver’s license or ID card from WA State is the most common form that will work.
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