No REAL ID? It could cost you $18 to go through TSA checkpoints under proposed rule

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

November 19, 2025, 8:23 PM


Airplane passengers without a REAL ID or passport could face an $18 fee under a new rule proposed by the Transportation Security Administration.

Under the proposed rule, set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, travelers without the required identification will have their identity verified on a new biometric kiosk system before they're permitted to pass through the checkpoint.

The $18 fee -- which will allow passengers to access TSA checkpoints for 10 days -- will be used to help pay for the new technology, according to the notice.

It's unclear when exactly the new system -- and accompanying $18 fee -- will roll out. The publication of the new rule in the Federal Register kicks off a public comment period on the proposed change.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/real-id-cost-18-tsa-checkpoints-proposed-rule/story?id=127690599

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Link to Federal Register NOTICE - TSA Modernized Alternative Identity Verification User Fee

[Callie1979]

1. At this point if you dont have one, its on you.

I mean, they've been talking about everyone needing a REAL ID for like a dozen YEARS. Probably more. My last ID that expired was already a REAl id & that was 6 years ago.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. Really?

I tried and got denied twice. They keep on coming up with reasons not to let me have one.

But, it's my fault that they won't do it... gotcha.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

6. It took 3 tries before I got mine..

The Senior Living facility where I live, my rent includes Utilities(Electricity and Water), Cable(Antenna), and Garbage Pickup, so I had NO Utility bill. I had to provide a Birth Certificate, my SS card, valid Passport, the Lease agreement that had the actual address where I lived and valid signatures, Bank Statement with my current address, and Declaration of Renter's Insurance(just in case) as PROOF of citizenship and residency.

Once reprocessed, I was in the clear.

I just returned home from a trip to Georgia and had my Real ID to show TSA. I also had a valid Military ID on me as well. Not having a Real ID is on the person, not TSA.

[OldBaldy1701E]

29. That's another thing.

My lease is not solely in my name. SO, they will not accept it.

[slightlv]

9. Three times denied for me.

I finally threw a righteous hissy fit the last time when they tried to pull the exact stunt on me I predicted they'd do when they denied me at first. I'd already spent too much time and hard to come by money.

Some of us have intertwined, complicated lives. America doesn't do complicated anymore. Everything is either black or white.

And RealID was nothing more than an excuse to build a massive national database for all our information. J. Edgar would have been tingling to his toes. And so many Americans just handed it all over with a smile. The rest of us had to pay for the privilege, but we tried to warn people every step of the way

[Callie1979]

25. Its been the law for 20 YEARS. You dont have a drivers license or State ID?

Its been talked about constantly the entire time.
I dont know what your State is but if you cant get one I'd be calling someone.

[OldBaldy1701E]

28. I suspect the final reason is more... class-based.

It has only been in the last twelve yeas that I have needed a passport or anything like that. A Real ID was not required and I don't believe that, at the time, they were going to become the 'only' thing accepted. Then, things changed around five years ago and I no longer needed that and therefore did not worry about it. I just decided that I wanted to get the 'Enhanced ID' because my freaking husband got one, as well as everyone else I know. But, that good ole Baldy luck said, "Oh HELL no!"

Yes, I have a drivers license.

What I don't have is a bank statement that is solely in my name. (Their request. Not negotiable.) The vehicle is also in both of our names. (Their request. Not negotiable.) The utilities are not in my name. I don't have several banks accounts and four houses and ten vehicles and so on. So, I don't have the required paperwork from List Number Three. They will not accept anything other than that paperwork.

So, no Real ID for me. It doesn't matter at this point. Hell, I gave them money for both attempts and they have not even contacted me about refunding any of it. They refused the paperwork that I gave them twice and they seem quite content to ignore me after refusing my requests. I am a poor person who is one toothache away from being on the street. Call someone? Like maybe my Congress person? I tried that. They have avoided me like the plague whenever I attend their 'town halls' because I always have the same question and it has to do with the bias in our culture due to wealth inequity. This person was just featured in an article that pointed out that this person was a multi-millionaire, which would put them at odds with my question, so this person won't even look in my direction. So, I am guessing that there is no help to be had from that quarter.

I just don't get one, I guess. Which is a 'whatever', but when one's family has been here for 375 years and yet cannot get a Federal ID because they won't accept my 'proof of identity'... well, it tends to make one VERY cynical about a great many things pertaining to our current societal model and whether it is worth saving. It also becomes a trigger for various mental issues that are unaddressed due to that same wealth inequity. There is no where to turn to find help on the matter now, and to be honest, I doubt I will ever need to go anywhere again anyway. I cannot afford to drive to another city these days, much less travel anywhere else. So, to use a bit of street vernacular... fukdatshii!

But, that's just old, cynical, and worn out me.

[Callie1979]

34. What a messed up state! I'm in GA. When my old one renewed, I had my "star"

That was 2012. I never provided anything. I dont get it.

[yardwork]

35. I'm so sorry this is happening.

You're absolutely correct that it's classism. Congress makes laws that reflect their own lives: mostly male, with mostly stay at home wives, with two homes, the same utilities for 20 years, bank accounts with the same bank since they graduated from college, etc.

The fact that millions of Americans have different kinds of lives never hits their radar screens.

[Jose Garcia]

8. The law to implement this was passed in 2005

[forthemiddle]

20. More than a dozen years!

The law past in May of 2005!
It has been kicked down the road for more 2 decades!
If you have been unable to get a Real ID, that’s on you!

[hunter]

3. Why not go full fucking Nazi?

Internal passports for all, with special annotations for undesirables...

[Martin68]

23. Oh, c'mon. It's no big deal. Just as easy as getting a driver's license. We've had years to get one.

You are inventing a non-issue. Are you against driving licenses too? Passports? What's the difference?

[hunter]

27. We don't live in a nation with a trustworthy government.

By a deeply flawed constitution and extreme gerrymandering we are currently ruled by a minority of fascist deplorables.

The entire RealID program and the implementation of "Homeland Security" itself was flaming bullshit.

It's all a grotesque security theater and its being used to undermine our democracy.

I'll sign on to RealID when the current incarnation of the Republican Party is dead with a stake through its heart and we have a trustworthy government again.

I actually tried to get RealID in less troubled times but it turned out my papers were not in order. They did not accept my birth certificate, which I got some years ago direct from the county clerk's office in the county of my birth. Rather they wanted some damned document I'd have to pay a private business for. None of it sat well with me so I never went back for the Real ID.

Resistance is easy. It's no big deal.

And I'm not sure what the purpose of Real ID is. The vast majority of "bad guys" in this nation, those who might want to harm me, the ones I'm supposed to fear, will have their papers in order. RealID won't protect me from them.

Besides, I hate flying.

[OrwellwasRight]

31. It is an issue.

I have a passport and have had one basically since adulthood. But I’ve tried to get a “real ID” both of the last times my driver’s license expired and I can’t get one because I don’t have the required documents with the required addresses. When you move all the time, including cross country and internationally, it makes it difficult to show arbitrary things like utility bills in your name with the address you need the driver’s license for. Why is it harder to get a REAL ID than a passport? Ever consider that?

[twodogsbarking]

4. I got a passport last summer. You need a birth cetificate with your parents' names otherwise they

will hold your application. State issued birth certificate from the 80s wouldn't work.
Post office handled it very well. Took only a few minutes for the pic. Real ID can take a lot of time. No appointments and a line so you can wait hours I guess.

[slightlv]

10. I dont have a passport.

When I traveled you could still go into Mexico and Canada without one. But OMG that was a lifetime ago. No money to do overseas traveling after that. I always regretted that (sigh).

If I had one today it'd be too tempting to flee this country rather than try to fight against this admin.

[twodogsbarking]

11. It is tempting but all of my stuff is here.

[slightlv]

15. Yeah, and if you're like me, it's TOO much stuff! (LOL)

[twodogsbarking]

16. I have enough stuff to get a booth at the local antique store. It is a semi-co-op if there is such a thing.

Many things 100+ years old. Shits even older than me.

[FakeNoose]

5. I always carry my US passport

My passport shows a scan of my real correct signature, and my Pennsylvania drivers license shows a computer scribble.

The PA drivers license / Real ID shows a scribble that doesn't look like my real signature, since I was required to sign on one of those little glass computer screens. I'm left-handed and it's completely NOT what my signature really looks like. (Even though I tried to sign it a half-dozen times, it never looked like my real signature.) I hate what they printed on my PA-DL and I refuse to show it for identification. That "signature" is something I can't match because it's not how I really sign my name.

The signature on my passport, on the other hand, is completely correct and that's what I always show for ID. Until Pennsylvania wises up and allows me to submit a signature on paper that they can scan and save to file, that's how it's going to be.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. "The PA drivers license / Real ID shows a scribble that doesn't look like my real signature"

When I got my PA Driver's license/RealID back in 2019, I had my passport but also had my *original* SS card that I got when I was 12 years old (at the time, my dad, who was a fed, had died on the job so we got survivor's annuity, and thus my mom had to register me and my sisters into SS system, which back then had not been required for the general population unless they were going to have a work history, but is now required for all children at birth).

I pre-warned the DMV CSR doing my Real ID processing, that my "12 year old kid signature" on my SS card, would NOT look like my current signature on my license or passport, and we both had a good laugh!

[FakeNoose]

14. Sure it never occurred to me that children would have the same problem

I know a lot of senior citizens - I'm in my 70s - and we all complain about having to sign on those little computer screens.

That must have been hard on you and your family, losing your dad at such a young age.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. "we all complain about having to sign on those little computer screens."

I hate those damn things with a passion (especially those without a stylus). Most of them won't even consistently register if something is drawing on it.

That must have been hard on you and your family, losing your dad at such a young age.

Me and my sisters were always close (still are today) and mom was a trooper through that. Plus neighbors and other family members were always around to help (none of my grandparents were still alive when that happened)!

[Martin68]

22. I never actually sign. I just execute a random squiggle.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. "I never actually sign. I just execute a random squiggle."

I see people do that for credit card transactions at stores...

[Callie1979]

26. The sad thing is when I do that it looks just like my signature.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. Remember the conundrum of one of Obama's Treasury Secretaries

Jacob "Jack" Lew?



(he had to create a new cursive signature for printing on the paper currency )

[Martin68]

44. Same here!

[FakeNoose]

33. It's OK to do that when the document is something you can scrutinize later

For example, I can squiggle a signature for a credit card payment when I know there's a record being created and I'll have the chance to review it later and change it if necessary.

But what if you're stopped by the law and you show them an ID that has a squiggle signature? What if they don't believe it's your ID and they ask you to sign on a sheet of paper? Then they compare your REAL signature with the squiggle that was done on a computer screen ... and your goose is cooked because you can't match it. That's the scenario that I'm talking about.

In normal times I wouldn't worry about stuff like this, but THESE aren't normal times.

[yardwork]

36. I've realized that I can't vote by mail in my state.

They scrutinize the signatures and mine is always a squiggle (always a different squiggle) so my ballot would be kicked out. And so my vote won't count. So I have to vote in person.

[FakeNoose]

37. Yes thank you - that's an even better example

Sometimes technology works against us in awful ways.

[Old Crank]

12. No need for real id

Unless you want to fly.
I'll bet that millions don’t ever fly.
It takes less to get a passport than real ID. But a passport done, which serves the same function, can't be the only documentation for real I'd.
But if you fly and need the ID you have had plenty of time.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. "No need for real id...Unless you want to fly."

Except if you need to go into a general (multi-agency) government building (including federal courthouses and military bases), they want to see one.

E.g., often IRS offices are in multi-agency buildings so if you have an appointment, you need to go through the security screening for the building.

[OldBaldy1701E]

30. So is Social Security. (n/t)

[maxsolomon]

17. $18 is better than being turned away at the TSA checkpoint.

Everyone: please get a passport.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. "Everyone: please get a passport."

A Passport Card might be a cheaper solution too if a person doesn't plan on international air travel (it's also valid for traveling to Canada, Mexico, some of the islands in the Caribbean, and Bermuda) - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/card.html

When I last renewed my passport, I went on and bought a card to go with it, as it was valid as a Real ID too and better than carrying around a passport (and at the time, PA hadn't accepted doing a Real ID driver's license).

[Martin68]

21. Everyone has had plenty of time to get one. We've had our for years. This is a non-issue.

[FakeNoose]

40. That's true, except that Pennsylvania finally adopted the Real-ID only recently

Pennsylvania had been holding out on Real IDs because they didn't want the cost of changing everything over to the new system. Finally we HAD to change and it took 2 or 3 years to get everyone to renew their driver's license in the Real ID format. Then the problem was all the folks who had NO drivers license, they needed to get the Real ID also, assuming they don't have a US passport.

Pennsylvania just joined everyone else in the 21st century this past year, issuing Real IDs and Real DLs to everyone. This November's election is the first one we've had where everyone is on the new system. I guess it went pretty smoothly, from what I've heard in the news.

Mission accomplished, I guess.

[Martin68]

43. Well, that's on PA for delaying implementation. I'm glad it worked out for most people in the end.

[Raftergirl]

38. I've had a Passport for 50+ years so there is no reason for me to get RealID.

[Justice]

39. It's kind of stupid

In my state, my original social security card (issued in the 1970s) was not accepted so I had to get a new one.

To get a new one, I had to make appt, then go to social security office and present my passport.

Then go back to DMV with my passport and new social security card.

Very circular, stupid logic.

[FakeNoose]

41. The records are all archived in separate databases

Maybe that's a good thing....

... because I really don't want the state and the federal governments sharing my info with one another.

[Bengus81]

42. How many J6er's have Real ID's? I'd bet MOST of them. Those fuckers are TERRORISTS

So much for a phony ID on your DL......