The Transportation Security Administration proposed on Thursday charging adults who fly in the U.S. an $18 fee if they don’t have a REAL ID.
The fee would help pay for upgraded technology to verify the identities of travelers if they don’t present “acceptable” forms of identification that also include passports, passport cards or military identification, according to a notice posted by TSA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees it. Travelers can view the full list of approved forms of identification here.
It’s unclear what exactly the “modernized alternative identity verification program” would entail, but TSA said it would use “biographic and/or biometric information” to confirm travelers’ identities. The program could conceivably include facial identification software, which TSA has been testing.
According to TSA, anyone who pays the $18 fee won’t have to do so again if traveling through security in the following 10 days. But the agency said it would reserve the right to deny travelers who repeatedly show up without acceptable forms of identification from flying.
A REAL ID in Oregon would more than pay for itself after two instances of TSA levying the $18 fee upon a traveler. Oregon charges $30 for each REAL ID, on top of the price of acquiring a standard license, which is $64 for first-time applicants and $54 for drivers who are renewing their licenses.
TSA didn’t say when the $18 would take effect, stating that it would roll out the policy “when TSA announces” it on its website, www.tsa.gov.
“Additional guidance will be announced in the coming days,” said a TSA spokesperson, in an email.
So far the proposal has received a mix of opinions from the flying public, with some saying it’s “ridiculous” and a money grab. Others argue that travelers have had plenty of notice to obtain a REAL ID. Congress passed REAL ID requirements in 2005 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and they were supposed to go into effect in 2008. But the implementation has been repeatedly delayed.
According to TSA, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem started implementing the ID requirements in May 2025, though that’s not what’s happened in reality. TSA officials still allow many travelers to pass through security without REAL IDs, passports or other acceptable forms of identification.
“If travelers do not have an ID compliant with REAL ID requirements, TSA may require them to submit to additional screening measures,” said Molly Prescott, a spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which operates PDX, in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday.
Prescott said the airport doesn’t track the number of travelers who show up without acceptable identification. According to the TSA, nationwide about 94% of air travelers carry appropriate identification.
“This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance,” said the TSA spokesperson.
TSA says children traveling in the U.S. aren’t required to show identification and wouldn’t be subject to the $18 fee.
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