Originally Posted by
Bart
You may use your passport as identification. To expedite processing, the TSO probably asked that people have their passports opened to the US Visa page because it would be easier to handle the exceptions to the rule as they come up. Otherwise, TSA is aware of the Visa waiver countries. If you encounter any difficulty at the travel document check station, ask to speak with a supervisor.
I'd imagine that visitors from VWP countries are a more common sight in airports than people with visas (excluding permanent residents, who probably use a state DL for ID). Is that true? If it is, most passports would then not have a US Visa page, asking for it to be displayed is a bit odd.
There are fewer countries in the VWP than there are US states, so its just a few more pieces of ID to recognize for ID checkers. Besides, most passports have a pretty standard ID page. If language is an issue, teach the TSOs to read the machine readable part of that page.