Google Wallet’s new passport ID feature won’t help you enter the country
Illustration: The Verge Google is now rolling out the ability to make a digital ID from your passport that you can store in Google Wallet and use at select TSA checkpoints — but only as a generic form of ID. It does not serve as a passport itself, Google spokesperson Liz Schulten tells The Verge: “The digital ID can’t be used at immigration and border control.” Here’s how to make the ID, per Google’s September blog post where it initially announced the feature: Select the prompt in the Google Wallet app to “create an ID pass with your U.S. passport” and follow the instructions to scan the security chip in the back of your passport. You’ll be asked to take a selfie video to verify your identity, and Google Wallet will notify you when your ID pass is ready (typically within a few minutes). However, in that blog post, Google also cautions that a digital ID in Google Wallet is “not a replacement for your physical ID” and that you should still carry a physical ID when traveling “for now.” The digital ID feature will be available to “all eligible users in the coming weeks,” according to Jenny Cheng, VP and GM of Google Wallet. You can see a map of which airports accept digital IDs on the TSA’s website. Cheng also shared that New Mexico driver’s licenses and state IDs can be saved in Google Wallet. New Mexico is the sixth state to support the feature, 9to5Google reports. Correction, December 6th: Our original headline said Google Wallet can replace your passport with this new digital ID feature, but Google now tells us that the ID can’t be used at immigration and border control.
Google is now rolling out the ability to make a digital ID from your passport that you can store in Google Wallet and use at select TSA checkpoints — but only as a generic form of ID. It does not serve as a passport itself, Google spokesperson Liz Schulten tells The Verge: “The digital ID can’t be used at immigration and border control.”
Here’s how to make the ID, per Google’s September blog post where it initially announced the feature:
Select the prompt in the Google Wallet app to “create an ID pass with your U.S. passport” and follow the instructions to scan the security chip in the back of your passport. You’ll be asked to take a selfie video to verify your identity, and Google Wallet will notify you when your ID pass is ready (typically within a few minutes).
However, in that blog post, Google also cautions that a digital ID in Google Wallet is “not a replacement for your physical ID” and that you should still carry a physical ID when traveling “for now.”
The digital ID feature will be available to “all eligible users in the coming weeks,” according to Jenny Cheng, VP and GM of Google Wallet. You can see a map of which airports accept digital IDs on the TSA’s website.
Cheng also shared that New Mexico driver’s licenses and state IDs can be saved in Google Wallet. New Mexico is the sixth state to support the feature, 9to5Google reports.
Correction, December 6th: Our original headline said Google Wallet can replace your passport with this new digital ID feature, but Google now tells us that the ID can’t be used at immigration and border control.
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