Are foreigners required to use a passport as ID for domestic flights within the US?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 3 Aug, 2023
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The TSA website, as far as I’m aware, correctly states the TSA policy: any of those documents is acceptable for use by anyone who legally has any of them. I’d certainly trust it over the unsourced and unofficial "passport today" site. (Some of the documents on the list, such as an Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card are, in fact, not generally available to US citizens resident in the US).
Immigrants Rising, which is not authoratative but at least has lawyers on staff, says that even people who are "undocumented" in the US can use any of the listed forms of ID to board a domestic flight if they have them; surely, visitors who are authorized to be temporarily in the US are also entitled to do so.
It is possible that a poorly trained TSA document checker relishing in the ability to exercise arbitrary authority could look at your SENTRI card closely enough to notice that you are not a US citizen and then, contra the TSA policy above, ask for your passport. In that case, if you have your passport in your carryon, you could find it and show it to them, and move on with your day. If you prefer, you could seek clarification from a supervisor at that point.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘