And, you can’t put a substitute device in there to unknowingly take your data - or, at least, it seems that way.
David
Just want to make a semantic comment: airport security and border checkpoints want to see original documents, not print outs or photocopies.
An exception: Brazil has moved to an e-visa system. Once my application was accepted I received an email from the Brazilian embassy with a PDF of the visa, that’s all. I didn’t submit my passport (except a scan) and so of course have no hardcopy visa pasted in it. I was instructed to print the PDF and show it to the passport control in Brazil. I keep the PDF in Apple Notes.
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Good point. Digital versions are considered to be copies.
I haven’t been able to set up my digital ID just yet but will do so as soon as I can before my next flight. First of all any occasion where you’re required to take out your ID and present it is also an opportunity to lose it, especially in a packed airport during a busy travel period. Second if you lose your ID or your wallet is stolen, a Digital ID gives you a backup that will get you on a plane (domestically at least) when you may otherwise be grounded. Finally once a large enough number of people start presenting Digital IDs and enough TSA checkpoints support them, it will improve airport security wait times for everyone. Not to mention by setting it up you’re not giving the US government any information about you that they don’t already have if you hold a passport.
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As a follow up to my early note, you can fly without an ID for $18:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/11/21/tsa-security-fee-wrong-id/
Apparently, the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants access to driver’s license data:
I think the bigger point here is not on what works today but rather pushing usage for tomorrow….
The more people add this new Digital ID to their phone now, then the more it’s likely to be accepted more widely and the more likely it’ll expand in usage and acceptance under future governance (eg. law improvements, et al.).
It’s a chicken and egg situation. Similar to how Apple/Google Pay payments have been an agonisingly slow process of rolling out without initially meeting constant blocks and problems, before final large-scale acceptance (while not perfect).
…then maybe, just maybe, people outside the US may get a look-in at having such ID features too (cough, UK/EU). 
EDIT: I’d like to know if Apple are working with other non-US countries to encourage them to roll-out similar systems.
Here in the UK the govt have been recently talking about introducing national ID cards to help streamline services, cut fraud, and accurately/quickly check immigration status, et al. (similar to countries like Estonia’s system they’ve have had for years now!), but one has to wonder if they even bother consulting with the major tech firms (Apple/Google/MS/etc.) about implementation, at all?
These processes are depressingly sloooooooooooow in getting done by govts, that it gets beyond a little frustrating still having little plastic cards to carry around, when almost everything else we do can be on our phone.
In that case, I thought tap-to-pay was already well established outside the US - wasn’t it was here in the US where attitudes and infrastructure needed to change?
I think that tap-to-pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc., had rapid adaptation. Yes, at first retailers here in the US who accepted it were few, but it wasn’t long before it was almost everywhere. I live in a fairly rural area but even here it’s rare when I need to physically present a credit card. Even restaurants that don’t use terminals carried by the wait staff (rare still in the US) often have a QR code on the bill to allow payment by Apple Pay.
Back to digital ID - I’m still not sure I see the value right now. I think where this will be important will be in regulations that require users be over a particular age to access particular assets on the internet. If a standard is adopted that allows a phone with a digital ID that can assert that the user is over 18 or 16 or 13 (or whatever) without revealing any other personal detail (such as the exact birth date), then a digital ID will be vastly better then scanning a physical ID each time you need to make that assertion. And we have nations and territories that have these regulations either in place already, or will soon have them take effect.
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The point with Digital ID’s specifically (i.e. digital versions of physical ones), is that the more users that Apple (and Google) can say to legislators have setup the feature on their devices, the more legislators and govt organisations (and by proxy, private organisations will then typically follow) are going to be more willing and interested in widening their scope of acceptance.
People also actually using (or at least trying to use them!) at the places that accept them, is also important in doing that.
The question of digital online/app proof of age is a related though separate issue. The current state of these here in the UK is ridiculous, as no one is going to add copies of an ID to things like p0rn sites, so the use of VPNs has skyrocketed – most people here who understand think this has been a completely idiotic govt implementation, accordingly.
It’s now official beginning Feb 1 and it’s going to cost $45.
I have a passport, I have a passport card, my drivers license is a Real ID - I still think I’m going to skip adding my passport to the wallet app for now.
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I have not tried Apple’s Digital ID yet, but well over two years ago (May of 2022), Maryland was one of a few states (Arizona, too, I think) that let you present your driver’s license as ID on your phone. I did it immediately. It wasn’t just a matter of your scanning your card; you had to go through a digital back-and-forth with the state (took about five minutes) for the installation to finish.
With my driver’s license on my iPhone, I have often gone through TSA checkpoints at BWI airport (Maryland) and now in several other states, including Illinois. I always have my phone at hand anyway for the digital boarding pass, so it’s easy to just tap the end of the phone on the pad in front of the TSA officer’s station and double-click to verify that you give the officer permission to look at the ID. The info pops up on the officer’s screen and you’re done.
I love it. It works great…works fast…when it works.
Maybe 20 percent of the time, the officer says, “Sorry, this one’s not working today. Need to see your physical ID.” Rats. Now I have to dig out my wallet, and although it’s only an extra few seconds, it’s a bit annoying.
I expect that the experience with the Digital ID will be similar.
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