Doppy

If foreign passports weren't valid forms of ID for air travel, we'd have a serious problem because nobody who came to the US would ever be able to leave.

catandmouse

As other posters have pointed out, the most obvious form of government-ID for non-US citizens is their passport. We don't have anything thing else better, in any case no US-issued documentation.
I have been tempted to try other documentation, ID-card, driving licence, etc., just to test reaction, but decided that it wasn't worth the hastle of trying to explain, even though both my Swiss ID-card and driving licence are in 5 languages, including English

Gatwick Alan

Just for the hell of it i used my Gatwick Airport photo security pass at LAS, once they'd had a good look at it, they accepted it and even had a friendly chat about it.

Deeg

And don't worry about the expired visa. It presents no problem. A visa only has to be valid when you enter the country. It can expire the next day without detrimental effect.

What needs to be currently valid is one's status in the United States. This is typically documented on an I-94 form.

spotwelder

My record is showing my passport 13 times in one day to US officials. The same official actually greeted me on the third time with "Ah, Mr Spotwelder, please can I see your passport again"

I have been hauled out of some lines as "an alien". Funny, I never thought that Roswell was next to BWI, maybe my knowledge of geography is not that good.

Fishie

This is not true, the Visa has to be valid for the intendet duration of your stay in the US and even past.
If you plan on staying 10 days and there are 89 days left on your Visa you cannot enter the country since the right to stay when granted is for 90 days.
Same with the passport itself, if it runs out within 90 days of entering you will not be admitted.

jpdx

Wrong! Visa validity does not matter at all for people like the OP (who, I suspect, is in the US on a student visa), the only thing that does matter is the expiration date of the I-94 (most likely: D/S), and end-date on the I-20 or DS-2019. A valid visa is only needed to enter the country, and many, if not most, students "overstay" their visa.

fairviewroad

Before we were married, my Canadian wife would use her Manitoba drivers license to fly domestically in the U-S. A Manitoba drivers license is a two-part document that looks nothing like most American licenses. I was always impressed that the I-D checkers didn't bat an eye. I mean, how many Manitoba drivers licenses do they see at PHL, for instance?

Deeg

Trust me, it is the truth. Visas only need to be valid for the moment of admission to the country. In fact, there are some weird, obscure cases in which ordinarily expired visas can still be used.

Also, for the record, not every admission is for 90 days. Some are a lot less, others are a lot more. I've seen them as short as one day and as long as five years. Some even have no limit and are granted indefinitely as long as the person continues what they came here to do (i.e. students and diplomats).

Passport validity is another question entirely, however. The general rule is that your passport must be valid for six months beyond the duration of your stay. Some countries have entered into agreements with the United States that reduce that six months to nil. Those countries have essentially agreed to accept an expired passport for the return of their own citizens. (At least that's my recollection of the reason.) But the passport does have to be valid throughout the entire duration of the admission period.

Fishie

This is what I was told by the US Embassy over here in Belgium when I got my 10 year B1/B2 Visa for the US.

crazypaisa

Sorry to revive this thread!!!
My brother's been living in the US (illegally) for a couple of years. He just got married with US citizen, but still needs to fill up all the documents to get his legal papers in 6 months.
He need's to go from Miami to Dallas Texas due to his job, and the only document he has is the Colombian passport that he just got about a week ago. Is that passport all he needs to travel domestic?


Thanks!

crazypaisa

Anyone?

markone

Should be fine. I have British passport and that's what I show all the time for US domestic flights - they like that much better than my British driving licence for example. (Only problem I have is if they start flipping through the passport and they start to fret about all the stamps in Arabic, Chinese, etc).

thadocta

Already answered earlier in this thread.

Dave

mre5765

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/9605187-post11.html .

And see,

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wi...hout_1260.html
http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wi...hout_1990.html

Citizens of some countries do not need a visa (normally). Columbia is not among those citizens.

Given the first link, and given the person in question has a new Columbian passport with no stamp from the the Department of Homeland Security, there is a chance the TSA will refer him to Customs and Immigration who will detain him.

Not worth the risk IMHO. The person in question (who apparently does not have a driver's license) needs to find someone to drive him by car to his destination. Or he needs to get approval from Customs and Immigration to reside in the USA (given his marriage to a U.S. citizen this should go smoothly, but he'll have to admit to working in the USA illegally, and he could be denied).