Before making it to the plane and proceed to travel to a specific country, you would have to go through the airport checkpoint to present valid identification of your personality. And that means you have to have a valid passport or other forms of ID. In today’s blog post, Airflyby Team will break this topic so you don’t have to question whether you have to hold an ID card, driver’s license, or foreign passport to travel freely.
Depending on where you want to travel, and the citizen of what country you are, you are allowed to fly with a state issued ID, or a foreign passport. Thus, the range of travel documents to choose from for domestic flights and for international ones differs. Read on and find out which forms of ID are needed for both domestic and international air trips.
Forms of Identification Needed to Fly Within Borders of a Country
If you are a citizen of the US, you are allowed to carry a driver’s license, a state identification card (if not being permitted to drive a card), work travel permit, or other local valid forms of identification to travel within the US. All the issued travel documents have to comply with Real ID requirements. Other acceptable forms of identification are:
- border-crossing cards,
- passport cards,
- Native American tribal ID cards,
- DHS trusted traveler cards (NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST cards),
- airline or airport photo ID cards compliant with TSA regulations, as well as
- U.S. passport, or
- U.S. passport card,
- State-issued Enhanced Driver’s License,
- Permanent resident card.
What comes for other countries that are permitted to travel within the US with their country’s valid identity documents?
Canadian citizens are allowed to present a valid photo identification card or a driver’s license to cross the US border.
Forms of ID and Visa Requirements for International Trips
When traveling abroad, all citizens of any country in the world have to present a valid ID at airport to be able to cross the border. Therefore, the suggested by TSA forms of ID for US citizens re-entering the US are:
- U.S. passport,
- DHS trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST), or
- Permanent Resident Card, for permanent residents of the United States.
Requirements regarding identification needed to fly internationally differ from those for re-entering the country. For instance, when American citizens travel to Europe, some countries may have travel visa requirements for crossing the borders and staying within the country. Additionally, US citizens will have to validate their identity by presenting a certain travel document.
Americans are allowed to travel abroad with a valid passport and required entry visa for specific countries.
In most cases, a valid passport is enough to travel freely across the globe. Hence, you might want to check your passport validity in order to proceed traveling abroad, as no other forms of identification are allowed to be presented at the checkpoint of airports.
REAL ID
On October 1st, 2020, a new requirement for those traveling by air will start its actions. We are talking about REAL ID compliance. Hence, you have to make sure your state-issued ID or license is compliant with REAL ID's requirements.
You can already check it if it does by noticing a star on top of your ID or license. The star's shape and color may differ depending on the state your ID or license was issued in.
If your REAL ID and state-issued enhanced driver's license have been issued in Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan, and New York states, then you can travel with those without any risks. The same applies to Washington's enhanced driver’s licenses only.
Visa Requirements for International Trips
As mentioned before, US citizens have to obtain a visa, an electronic travel authorization, or an electronic visa, before or on arrival in a certain country.
Now you can have an outlook on all countries in the world and their travel visa requirements, by following the table below:
VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS
- Afghanistan - visa required
- Albania - visa-free / 90 days
- Algeria - visa required
- Andorra - visa-free / 90 days
- Angola - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Antigua and Barbuda - visa-free / 180 days
- Argentina - visa-free / 90 days
- Armenia - visa-free / 180 days
- Australia - eTA / 90 days
- Austria - visa-free / 90 days
- Azerbaijan - eVisa
- Bahamas - visa-free / 240 days
- Bahrain - visa on arrival / eVisa / 30 days
- Bangladesh - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Barbados - visa-free / 180 days
- Belarus - visa-free / 30 days
- Belgium - visa-free / 90 days
- Belize - visa-free / 180 days
- Benin - eVisa
- Bhutan - visa required
- Bolivia - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - visa-free / 90 days
- Botswana - visa-free / 90 days
- Brazil - visa-free / 90 days
- Brunei - visa-free / 90 days
- Bulgaria - visa-free / 90 days
- Burkina Faso - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Burundi - visa required
- Cambodia - visa on arrival / eVisa / 30 days
- Cameroon - visa required
- Canada - visa-free / 180 days
- Cape Verde - visa on arrival
- Central African Republic - visa-free / 180 days
- Chad - visa required
- Chile - visa-free / 90 days
- China - visa required
- Colombia - visa-free / 90 days
- Comoros - visa on arrival / 45 days
- Congo - visa required
- Congo (Dem. Rep.) - visa required
- Costa Rica - visa-free / 90 days
- Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) - pre-enrollment
- Croatia - visa-free / 90 days
- Cuba - tourist card / 30 days
- Cyprus - visa-free / 90 days
- Czech Republic - visa-free / 90 days
- Denmark - visa-free / 90 days
- Djibouti - eVisa
- Dominica - visa-free / 180 days
- Dominican Republic - visa-free
- Ecuador - visa-free / 90 days
- Egypt - visa on arrival / eVisa / 30 days
- El Salvador - visa-free / 90 days
- Equatorial Guinea - visa-free
- Eritrea - visa required
- Estonia - visa-free / 90 days
- Eswatini - visa-free / 30 days
- Ethiopia - visa on arrival / eVisa
- Fiji - visa-free / 120 days
- Finland - visa-free / 90 days
- France - visa-free / 90 days
- Gabon - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Gambia - visa on arrival
- Georgia - visa-free / 360 days
- Germany - visa-free / 90 days
- Ghana - visa required
- Greece - visa-free / 90 days
- Grenada - visa-free / 90 days
- Guatemala - visa-free / 90 days
- Guinea - eVisa / 90 days
- Guinea-Bissau - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Guyana - visa-free / 90 days
- Haiti - visa-free / 90 days
- Honduras - visa-free / 90 days
- Hong Kong - visa-free / 90 days
- Hungary - visa-free / 90 days
- Iceland - visa-free / 90 days
- India - eVisa
- Indonesia - visa-free / 30 days
- Iran - visa required
- Iraq - visa required
- Ireland - visa-free
- Israel - visa-free / 90 days
- Italy - visa-free / 90 days
- Jamaica - visa-free / 120 days
- Japan - visa-free / 90 days
- Jordan - visa on arrival
- Kazakhstan - visa-free / 30 days
- Kenya - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Kiribati - visa-free / 120 days
- Kosovo - visa-free / 90 days
- Kuwait - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Kyrgyzstan - visa-free / 60 days
- Laos - visa on arrival / eVisa / 30 days
- Latvia - visa-free / 90 days
- Lebanon - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Lesotho - visa-free
- Liberia - visa required
- Libya - visa required
- Liechtenstein - visa-free / 90 days
- Lithuania - visa-free / 90 days
- Luxembourg - visa-free / 90 days
- Macao - visa-free / 30 days
- Madagascar - visa on arrival / 90 days
- Malawi - visa on arrival / eVisa / 30 days
- Malaysia - visa-free / 90 days
- Maldives - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Mali - visa required
- Malta - visa-free / 90 days
- Marshall Islands - visa-free / 90 days
- Mauritania - visa on arrival
- Mauritius - visa-free / 90 days
- Mexico - visa-free / 180 days
- Micronesia - visa-free / 30 days
- Moldova - visa-free / 90 days
- Monaco - visa-free / 90 days
- Mongolia - visa-free / 90 days
- Montenegro - visa-free / 90 days
- Morocco - visa-free / 90 days
- Mozambique - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Myanmar [Burma] - eVisa / 28 days
- Namibia - visa-free / 90 days
- Nauru - visa required
- Nepal - visa on arrival / 90 days
- Netherlands - visa-free / 90 days
- New Zealand - eTA / 90 days
- Nicaragua - visa-free / 90 days
- Niger - visa required
- Nigeria - pre-visa on arrival
- North Korea - visa required
- North Macedonia - visa-free / 90 days
- Norway - visa-free / 90 days
- Oman - eVisa / 30 days
- Pakistan - eVisa
- Palau - visa-free / 360 days
- Palestinian Territories - visa-free
- Panama - visa-free / 180 days
- Papua New Guinea - visa on arrival / eVisa / 60 days
- Paraguay - visa on arrival / 90 days
- Peru - visa-free / 180 days
- Philippines - visa-free / 30 days
- Poland - visa-free / 90 days
- Portugal - visa-free / 90 days
- Qatar - visa-free / 30 days
- Romania - visa-free / 90 days
- Russian Federation - visa required
- Rwanda - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Saint Kitts and Nevis - visa-free / 180 days
- Saint Lucia - visa-free / 42 days
- Samoa - visa on arrival / 60 days
- San Marino - visa-free / 90 days
- Sao Tome and Principe - visa-free / 15 days
- Saudi Arabia - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Senegal - visa-free / 90 days
- Serbia - visa-free / 90 days
- Seychelles - tourist registration / 90 days
- Sierra Leone - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Singapore - visa-free / 90 days
- Slovakia - visa-free / 90 days
- Slovenia - visa-free / 90 days
- Solomon Islands - visa on arrival / 90 days
- Somalia - visa on arrival / 30 days
- South Africa - visa-free / 90 days
- South Korea - visa-free / 90 days
- South Sudan - visa required
- Spain - visa-free / 90 days
- Sri Lanka - eTA / 30 days
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines - visa-free / 30 days
- Sudan - visa required
- Suriname - eTourist card / 90 days
- Sweden - visa-free / 90 days
- Switzerland - visa-free / 90 days
- Syria - visa required
- Taiwan - visa-free / 90 days
- Tajikistan - visa on arrival / eVisa / 45 days
- Tanzania - visa on arrival / eVisa
- Thailand - visa-free / 30 days
- Timor-Leste - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Togo - visa on arrival / 7 days
- Tonga - visa on arrival / 31 days
- Trinidad and Tobago - visa-free / 90 days
- Tunisia - visa-free / 120 days
- Turkey - eVisa / 90 days
- Turkmenistan - visa required
- Tuvalu - visa on arrival / 30 days
- Uganda - visa on arrival / eVisa
- Ukraine - visa-free / 90 days
- United Arab Emirates - free visa on arrival / 30 days
- United Kingdom - visa-free / 180 days
- Uruguay - visa-free / 90 days
- Uzbekistan - eVisa / 30 days
- Vanuatu - visa-free / 30 days
- Vatican City - visa-free / 90 days
- Venezuela - visa required
- Viet Nam - eVisa / 30 days
- Yemen - visa required
- Zambia - visa on arrival / eVisa / 90 days
- Zimbabwe - visa on arrival / 90 days
It is possible to fly almost around the world.
Now you are ready to make an unforgettable trip! Meet fellow travelers, make new acquaintances, achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams.
Last Updated on February 14, 2020.
