You can now digitize your passport thanks to Apple’s latest feature, Digital ID, launching on Wednesday.
Digital ID allows you to securely store your passport information in your iPhone’s wallet. You can then use your Digital ID at more than 250 airports nationwide as a form of identification to pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
This represents a major expansion of Apple’s digital identification efforts. Prior to this, 12 states and Puerto Rico had already supported the ability to add a driver’s license and other identity cards to an Apple Wallet.
With Digital ID, anyone who has a U.S. passport can store that information directly into their iPhone. You can also share the Digital ID with a paired Apple Watch.
When it’s time to clear security, you simply tap your iPhone at the TSA checkpoint and perform a face or touch ID scan on your phone to get verified. You can keep your physical ID in your wallet.
Even better, because you’ve essentially presented a digitalized version of your passport, you’ll satisfy the Real ID requirement as well.
Now, before you get too excited, note that this isn’t a passport replacement — at least not yet.
You still need to present a passport at immigration and wherever else they’re required by law. At launch, Digital ID’s primary use case is to facilitate seamless passage through TSA checkpoints.
But Apple has several additional use cases in the pipeline, Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, told me in an exclusive interview.
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From rental cars to hotel keys to age verification at a bar, Apple’s efforts to turn Digital ID into a replacement for your physical identity card are just beginning.
“Our goal is [to]… create a standard that can be adopted by us and all of the other ecosystem partners that you will be able to do border crossings with Digital ID in the future,” she said.
To create your Digital ID, ensure your iPhone is updated to iOS 26.1. Then, open the Wallet app, tap the button with the “+” icon and scroll to ID Cards. Follow the steps to add your U.S. passport, and after completing a few simple verification steps, your Digital ID will be saved to your device.
Note that your Digital ID data is encrypted, and your passport data will be stored exclusively on your device. Apple can’t see when and where you present your ID or what data was presented.
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