Why travelers from 9 U.S.-States will soon need a passport for domestic flights

If you are a resident Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Washington, and you are planning domestic flights in 2018, then you might want to check if your passport is still valid. If at that occasion you discover that you do not have a passport and you do not wish to be limited to earthbound methods of transportation, then you should probably apply for a passport in the next months - unless you have a military ID or a Permanent Resident Card.

As of January 22, 2018 a drivers' license from one of these nine States will no longer get you past TSA checkpoints at the airport since it does not meet the required standards asked for in the Real ID Act passed in 2005. Following the events of 9/11, the Act was passed to enforce stricter requirements to prevent counterfeiting of ID cards. Ideally, all State-issued Identity Cards should be in compliance with the Act in 2020.