The system used by TSA to authenticate people’s identification is having trouble with the new design of New Hampshire drivers licenses, a design that was specifically made to meet the federal Real ID requirements for boarding airplanes.
The New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles said Monday it has been “contacted by some recipients of the State’s new driver’s license design, indicating that their state-issued identification was not immediately able to be verified by the Transportation Security Administration’s credential authentication system at airport security checkpoints.”
The new license look was rolled out in late January. Some recipients of the newer design have reported being delayed at security checkpoints while their identification is manually reviewed.
The complication comes just days before the May 7 deadline when Real ID licenses will be required to board an airplane.
MV says the vendor that produced the new design “confirmed the issue was related to the TSA’s identification scanning system and not related to the identification itself.”
“Everyone who has received the new design should rest assured that their identification is valid, REAL ID-compliant, and was thoroughly reviewed and approved by a variety of stakeholders, including the Department of Homeland Security, before it was finalized and went into production,” said New Hampshire DMV Director John Marasco in a prepared statement.
“TSA has alternate measures in place for situations where the Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) system is unable to validate an ID as well as the ability to verify the identity of those passengers who do not have their ID,” said TSA New England Region spokesperson Daniel Velez.
DMV said TSA anticipates the new design will be integration into its system nationwide “soon” but details of the timeline were not available.
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