Visa checking at the airpor for domestic flight? Please answer me.

[alejo]

I am sorry for all the spelling mistakes I made in the previous message.
I think this is going to look better.

I was under an F1 Visa wich has expired. I need to travel from California to Florida. Will I have any problems at the airport? Will they check my visa. They have never done it before they just checked my passport as an Id but I don't know how the situation is now. The last time I traveled was 6 months ago. My passport is valid for some more years.
Thanks for your help!

[alejo]

I am sorry for all the spelling mistakes I made in the previous message.
I think this is going to look better.

I was under an F1 Visa wich has expired. I need to travel from California to Florida. Will I have any problems at the airport? Will they check my visa. They have never done it before they just checked my passport as an Id but I don't know how the situation is now. The last time I traveled was 6 months ago. My passport is valid for some more years.
Thanks for your help!

[Pasha Patel]

hi...
i dont think, they will check your visa. i travel a lot and they just need passport and ID i meant driver's license or something with ur photographs....but still dont know...u might wanna double check with airport authorities or airline...or u can travel by road....thats another option u can use...Regards

[Christine]

If you do have US ID or a US driver's licence, then you don't need to use your passport for travelling domestically.
If you don't have any of the above then I wouldn't risk flying.... some authorities check and some don't but it's not worth you getting deported over it.

I was an F1 for a long time and out of status at that and every time I flew I used my driver's license only.

Keep your passport only for international travel. If you attempt using expired visas, you may get into trouble that you wont believe.

What is the reason you want to use the expired visa? Do you have a driver's license?

[alejo]

No. I don't have a driver's license. I've always used my passport as my Id which is legal. My immigration status has not been checked for domestic flights. But the last time I traveled was 7 months ago. I don't know if things have changed.

Thanks again.

[Cayita]

In June I flew from NY to New Orleans (via Atlanta). My visa was expired (it was a fiance visa) and I hadnt apply for the AOS yet. I carried with my my marriage certificate just in case. The truth is noboday checked my visa, just the first page of my passaport where my name and picture was. I had at least 6 cheacking and they all where the same (according to the first page, my passaport has expired, the renewal is in some other page but they even asked to see that).
Like you, I was afraid so before travel I called INS. They told me it is Airline policy to accept foreign passaports as valid identification. The airlines cannot deport you. The best they can do is reject your passaport saying os not sufficient. That would be stupid considering there are many foreign turist just traveling throughout the US.

PS: I traveled by Delta.

You don't need any legal status to fly domestically since you don't go thru INS or custom checks. However, you must need some kind of valid goverment-issued picture ID, and if you don't have anything like Driver License, or non-driver license, or any valid picture documents issued from INS, then you must need to show your valid foreign passport since valid foreign passport is accepted for ID purpose.

However, you should all know that federal govt took over the security of all airports in the Untied States few months ago, which means- anything could happen if you are caught or questioned. They resereve the right to ask anything from anyone. If you are keeping the eyes on the news thesedays then you should have known that find mostly illegal people are caught during flying domestically. Now, every airports have federal agents, and being federal agents, they have access to all kind of information on every one if they go further to check information on everyone. If nothing happens to you yet, it doesn't mean that it won't happen in the future. It is upto you to decide that -can you risk your life IF something goes wrong? Nobody can guarantee that nothing will happen especially when you are dealing with airport security thesedays.

There are some other facts also that I wanna clear it up-

[1] Having marriage certificate, or being married with USC, or having pending application for AOS, doesn't mean that you already have LEGAL STATUS here, instead nothing [out of above] will protect you from deportation if your status is known to govt [state and federal]. Until a staus is granted [AOS case is approved, other than valid non-immigrant visa], alien is still considered to be illegal in the country and will be subjected to deportation at any time. However, if someone has valid EAD, then INS will hold deportation proceedings until a decision is made on his/her AOS case. Lot of people think that if they are married to USC, or have pending AOS, or etc, means they have legal status here automatically, and that's simply not true, instead their cases can still be denied even though they have US spouses or children. That's why it is very important that the people who have pending AOS, don't come in the eyes of govt. or don't tell about their illegal status to their friends since those friends may call the Govt in the back of them.

[2] It is true that Airlines are the only ones usually check the ID before letting anyone to board on airlines, but an ID may still be asked by any federal agent at anytimes if they feel to know someone's Identity especially at the time of going thru security check-up at the airports. Even though the possiblities are very slim, but you can not rule out anything completely that you won't be asked for it. And, once they will notice a foreign passport, they might get intersted to know yr legal status. As you all know- they are part of Homeland Security Dept.

[3] There is no need to call INS to verify anything in advance about airports security or any other procedures at the airports since INS don't get involved in domestic flights. Moreover, even if you call INS for international flights situation, wherein you must need to go thru INS, you still can not rely on their words, since when you will arrive at the port of entry, the officer at that time, will make his/her own judgement to let you in or not. They reserve the right to deny entry to you if they want to, even if someone has legal right to entry. There are lots of grounds to deny entry to someone. So, calling the INS about their procedure at the airports won't do anything.

You should have obtained driver license or non-driver license when you had legal status in the past, since showing your passport each and every time as an ID to everyone means you are vulunerable to be asked your immigration status and subject to be deported. Keeping the climate of airports security, you need to make right judgement by yourself. If I were you, I will travel by bus or train even though it will take very long time and more expensive than plane, but at least I would not be jeopardizing my presence here.

[alejo]

You guys are amazing. Thank you all for your help.

As somebody told me IT'S BETTER "NOT TO MAKE WAVES"

So I think I'll follow that advise.

Thanks again.