Yesterday at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple introduced something travel-related: Digital passports in Apple Wallet. This is a part of the upcoming iOS 26 update coming this fall.
At first glance, this sounds like something huge. Does this mean I can leave my passport at home and use my phone for a border crossing (why would I even do that)? No.
Maybe that’ll happen way down in the future, but there are many obstacles Apple would have to hop through to make something like that possible right now. Instead, this digital passport system is designed for domestic travel. Not exactly what a passport is meant for, is it?
Here’s the summary:
- Users can create a digital ID by using their passports as verification.
- This ID is made using your camera and a Face ID scan as a form of biometric authentication.
- These can be used at TSA checkpoints, and according to Apple, “in apps, and in person.” These are not valid for land border crossing and international travel. You still need your physical passport to go through CBP.
- For now, this is only valid for U.S. passports.
To put it simply, you’re not getting a valid passport on your phone. It’s instead more of another form of ID, where you use your passport when you initially authenticate.
Currently, Apple Wallet offers digital driver’s licenses for users in a handful of states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, and Puerto Rico. This digital passport ID will work in a similar way to these, but with a different purpose, and the authentication coming from a passport.
All of that said, a couple of things come to my mind with this new feature.
First, with the start of the Real ID enforcement last month, some passengers who were unable to obtain Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses on time began traveling with passports on domestic flights. With this digital passport ID, these passengers can obtain an ID on their Apple Wallet and leave their passports at home for domestic flights. Currently, TSA accepts Apple Wallet IDs and other digital IDs at 250+ airports, so I’m assuming the digital passport IDs will fall under this umbrella.
That said, users who wish to use this feature will still have to wait until this fall for the iOS 26 update to come around. It still might be quicker to just get a Real ID-compliant license, but I guess it’s an option nonetheless.
Further down the road, I can see Apple trying to integrate this into border crossings. They appear to be working with border crossing agencies to allow users to utilize this on a more global scale, but we definitely have a long way to go for that to become a reality. Should digital passports were to become a thing, though, I’m not sure if I’d use them immediately. I carry multiple passports as a dual citizen anyway, and I wouldn’t want to use them unless it gets to the point of common usage for most of the world. Different countries adopt technology changes at different speeds, so you can’t always assume what’s normal in the U.S. to work in a foreign country.
Back to present day: Do I see myself using this feature when iOS 26 comes out? Not really. I think it’s a nice addition for some travelers, especially those who wish to use their passports as their federal ID at TSA but want to leave the physical copy at home. But I don’t see how big of a difference it makes for most others.
Maybe this is just part of Apple’s long-term vision to introduce these digital IDs at border crossings. I think that’s still far in the future though, especially for common usage at a global level.
Featured image by Apple.
