TSA Rules Right Now: REAL ID, the $45 Fee, Shoes On, and What Still Comes Out of Your Bag

Airport security changed more in the last eighteen months than in the ten years before it. REAL ID is finally enforced, there is a new $45 fee for anyone who shows up without an acceptable ID, shoes stay on, and a phone can now be your license in sixteen states. This page is the current rule for each of those, checked against TSA’s own pages, so you know what to carry and what still has to come out of the bag.

The short version

Checked 14 September 2026 on tsa.gov. TSA says its ID list can change without notice, so check it again in the week you fly.

1. REAL ID is enforced, and the star is what counts

Since 7 May 2025, a state driver’s license or ID card that is not REAL ID compliant is not accepted at the checkpoint. TSA says more than 94 percent of travelers already show a REAL ID or another acceptable ID, which is why the lines did not fall apart. If you are in the other 6 percent, here is how to tell.

• Look for the star in the top corner of the card. Most states use a gold or black star; California uses a bear with a star.
• No star means no REAL ID, even if the card is new. Some states still issue a standard license by choice, so an issue date after your state went compliant is not proof on its own. Your state DMV site will say which you have.
• A temporary paper license is not accepted, REAL ID or not.
• An expired ID is accepted up to two years past its expiry date, for any ID on TSA’s list.
• Children under 18 do not need ID on a domestic flight. The exception is an unaccompanied minor using TSA PreCheck, who must show one. Airlines can have their own rules for minors, so ask yours.

2. No acceptable ID: the $45 TSA ConfirmID fee

Starting 1 February 2026, a traveler who cannot show an acceptable ID is referred to TSA ConfirmID, a fee-based identity check. The facts, from TSA’s announcement:

• The fee is $45 and covers a 10-day travel period, which is about one round trip.
• It is optional. If you do not pay and have no acceptable ID, you do not enter the checkpoint.
• Paying does not guarantee you get through. TSA attempts to verify who you are; if it cannot, you are not screened, and you have missed your flight.
• TSA urges paying online before you travel. Paying at the airport is possible at marked spots near most checkpoints, but TSA says to expect delays.
• A standard, non-REAL ID license puts you in this line. It is not treated as a lesser ID; it is treated as no ID.

The cheaper answer is a passport card ($30 for an adult renewal, $65 new, from the State Department) or a DMV appointment for the REAL ID. Either one is good for years; the $45 fee buys ten days.

3. Every ID TSA accepts

This is TSA’s list as of the date at the top of the page. Any one of them works on its own.

• State REAL ID driver’s license or ID card
• State Enhanced Driver’s License or Enhanced ID (the flag icon; also crosses the Canadian and Mexican land borders)
• Mobile driver’s license from a participating state (see the next section)
• US passport or US passport card
• DHS trusted traveler card: Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST
• US Department of Defense ID, including dependents’ IDs
• Permanent resident card
• Border crossing card
• Photo ID from a federally recognized Tribal Nation, including Enhanced Tribal Cards
• HSPD-12 PIV card (federal employees)
• Foreign government passport
• Canadian provincial driver’s license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card
• Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC)
• USCIS Employment Authorization Card (I-766)
• US Merchant Mariner Credential
• Veteran Health Identification Card

TSA is also testing three digital IDs at the checkpoint: Apple Digital ID, Clear ID and Google ID pass. Because they are a test, carry a physical ID from the list as well.

4. Your phone as your license: who can use it

TSA accepts a mobile driver’s license only from states it has approved, and only if the mobile version is built on a REAL ID, an Enhanced License or an Enhanced ID. As of this check, the participating states and the wallets they work with are:

TSA says these work at more than 250 checkpoints. To set one up you download the wallet or state app, scan your physical license, take a verification selfie and finish the state’s identity check. The reader at the checkpoint sees only what it needs, not your whole card. Two cautions: not every checkpoint in every airport has the reader yet, and a dead phone is no ID at all, so the plastic card still rides along.

5. Shoes stay on

On 8 July 2025 DHS ended the shoes-off rule at every domestic checkpoint, for every traveler, not only PreCheck. Everything else in the line still applies: identity check, Secure Flight vetting, and whatever the officer asks for at that lane. Belts, jackets, laptops and liquids follow the lane’s rule, which is where PreCheck still earns its fee: in a PreCheck lane, electronics and the liquids bag stay in the carry-on and belts and light jackets stay on. PreCheck costs $85 or less for five years, and children 17 and under go through the PreCheck lane with an enrolled adult at no charge. TSA says about 99 percent of PreCheck passengers wait under 10 minutes.

6. Liquids: still 3-1-1, with a shortcut at some lanes

The liquids rule has not changed. Each container is 3.4 ounces (100 ml) or less, all of them fit in one quart-size bag, one bag per traveler. What has changed is the scanner. Checkpoints with the newer CT scanners can screen a bag with the liquids and the laptop still inside, so at those lanes you are told to leave everything in. That is a convenience at that lane, not a bigger allowance: the 3.4-ounce limit applies in every lane in the country, and an officer can still ask you to take things out. Pack for the rule and treat the shortcut as a bonus.

What this means for your trip insurance

Being turned away at the checkpoint over ID is not a covered reason on the trip cancellation and trip interruption plans we compare. A plan pays when the airline, the weather or a listed reason (illness, a death in the family, a job loss, and so on) stops the trip, not when paperwork does. So the $45 fee, a missed flight and a new ticket would all be yours. The fix is the same as above: check the card for the star this week, not at the curb. For what a plan does pay when a flight goes wrong, see does travel insurance cover flight delays, and for the list of things no plan pays for, what travel insurance does not cover.

Related

• Airport and security hacks for every traveler
• Understanding safety protocols for domestic travel
• How to upgrade your airline seat with miles

Rules on this page were checked on 14 September 2026 against TSA’s acceptable identification page, its 1 December 2025 announcement of the TSA ConfirmID fee, its 8 July 2025 announcement ending the shoes-off rule, its participating states page for mobile driver’s licenses, and its TSA PreCheck page. Passport card fees are the State Department’s. TSA changes these rules without notice; tsa.gov governs.