No TSA Real ID? You Can Soon Pay a Fee and Make Your Flight

THOUGH the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting,

With exactness grinds he all.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Congress enacted the REAL ID Act in 2005, in response to the 2001 9/11 attacks. It was finally implemented May 7, 2025, after numerous delays. 

In November 2025, one of our relatives thought she had lost her passport a few days before a planned domestic flight. She made the mistake of canceling it immediately. A short while later her husband found the passport, but the damage was done. 

She discovered she could not cancel her cancellation, She had not upgraded her state driver's license to meet Real ID requirements, and that's impossible to do on short notice. She managed to apply immediately for a new passport. However, as part of that application procedure, the expired (or cancelled) passport must be surrendered, so she lost that form of ID (the TSA will accept recently expired ID, but we could find no definitive statement about cancelled ID). What to do? 

With some research help from us, she discovered it wasn't that big a deal. We learned she would be well advised to arrive at the checkpoint early, to carry whatever photo ID she had, and to be prepared to spend some extra time. Along with her driver's license, she had government-employee photo ID, which might help and definitely wouldn't hurt.

After all of the stress and concern she experienced in the days leading up to the flight, the anti-climactic reality was that the TSA employees checked her ID, swabbed her hands, and quickly cleared her. The return trip proved even simpler, with no hand-swabbing.

The TSA has now decided to monetize such situations by charging a rather hefty $45 fee to process travelers lacking REAL ID as of February 1. The original fee proposed was $18, so we might consider the new fee both punitive and profitable.

On the other hand, knowing well in advance she'd be cleared to fly would have alleviated her worries, making such a fee a cost-effective, if pricey, investment in peace of mind. 

Years ago there was talk of chip implants to facilitate ID - they do work for dogs and other pets. It turns out facial recognition technology seems to have eliminated any such need. As we proceed through the US Immigration Global Entry line upon returning from abroad, we no longer have to physically present our passports to the kiosk machines, but only our faces for a photo. The immigration officers match our photos to our faces and so far have let us through without any delay.

It greatly simplifies the process, while being a somewhat eerie and, yes, unsettling experience. Longfellow's "mills of God" - or government - may grind slowly, but we're no doubt dinosaurs for worrying about being ground up in the process.