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In light of this question and its answers and comments, I have a question.

I am a US expat living abroad for many years. On one visit to the US (NY state), I tried to pay in a store with a check (personal check, on a US bank where I still had an account). The cashier wanted, of course, a driver's license. I no longer had one. I tried to use my passport but she did not consider it valid id and would not allow me to pay by check (I don't remember how I paid :-) ).

The question I referred to relates to the issue of what to use for id when visiting the US:

She wants to keep it for Identification she needs for paperwork, etc when conferring with her US bank accounts, etc.

As someone who resides outside the US, she should use her passport as identification when visiting the US.

Apparently though, it does not always work. How can an expat use a personal check, when visiting the US? If it is the passport, is there somewhere this is documented? Something I could print out and show to a cashier who does not know?

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    "but she did not consider it valid id" that is beyond stupid. There is no requirement to even have a drivers license. What if you are legally blind? Do they want to see your drivers license? I don't think that person would have been convinced, no matter what you explained to them. If someone doesn't have common sense to be convinced by the obvious, showing them a page copied from the law will do very little.
    – nvoigt
    Commented May 30 at 13:56
  • Could be. I don't remember whether she asked her manager. But if we expats are supposed to use our passport for id, but it is not always accepted, then we have a problem, no? Even if the people are idiots, we're the ones who then can't pay! As for blind or whatever, the DMV in NY also offers a non-driver id, for many years already, IIRC.
    – Basya
    Commented May 30 at 14:25
  • @nvoigt There is also no requirement to have any ID, what does that have to do with anything? In many US states, it's actually possible to get a non-driver identification card from the agency issuing driving licenses. Can you stop making ignorant comments about ID law or US practices? Your “common sense” seems to be mostly an assumption that every place should be like Germany…
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 30 at 20:47
  • My "common sense" is that since I could use my foreign passport in all kinds of places to get IDd in the US, they should accept a US passport as well. No idea what that has to do with Germany.
    – nvoigt
    Commented May 31 at 4:56
  • @nvoigt You wrote “There is no requirement to even have a drivers license.“ But there is no requirement to even have a passport or any specific document in the US. This sentence only makes sense in the German context where there is in fact such a requirement. Same thing for your comment elsewhere about driving license not being an official ID document in Europe, which multiple commenters had to explain is simply not true.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 1 at 9:27

2 Answers 2

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You can't control every decision of every cashier. There's no requirement for US citizens to have any type of ID, and many in New York do not have driving licenses.

Passport is in fact the only ID to which every US citizen is entitled.

You mentioned "printed out" - any photocopy is not a valid ID. You need the actual passport.

And paying by check - get a debit card. Checks are the worst payment method ever.

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    "Passport is in fact the only ID to which every US citizen is entitled to." They can be denied US passports for having a certain amount of unpaid child support or unpaid taxes, or for foreign policy / national security reasons (e.g. Philip Agee).
    – user102008
    Commented May 30 at 15:45
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    I wasn't talking about printing out a copy of the password. I meant printing out something to give the cashier explaining that a passport is supposed to be usable as an id.
    – Basya
    Commented May 30 at 17:22
  • "many in New York do not have driving licenses" - that is why they have the non driver id.
    – Basya
    Commented May 30 at 17:23
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    I don't think you can get a state id without being a resident there
    – littleadv
    Commented May 30 at 19:20
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    @Basya: The store can accept or reject any mode of payment they like. Lots of stores do not accept checks, or only accept them if you meet some arbitrary requirements. For example, if you're a resident of a foreign country, the store might not want to put up with the complexity of chasing you down if the check bounces, because it's much harder than chasing down a local. There is nothing to "explain" to the cashier, or their boss, because they were entirely within their rights to refuse your check.
    – Kevin
    Commented May 31 at 2:11
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The only somewhat relevant requirement I can find about what forms of payments stores have to accept is a requirement that New York City stores accept cash. Since the aren't even required to accept checks, I'd be surprised to find a requirement that if they choose to accept them at all, they then must accept specified forms of ID.

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  • That makes some sense. But....checks notwithstanding, are there any known guidelines about what is considered valid identification?
    – Basya
    Commented May 31 at 8:39
  • @baysa For US domestic flights, US and foreign passports can be used to board. If you need a notarization, US passports are OK as ID; foreign passports may or may not be depending on the state.
    – Gerard Ashton
    Commented May 31 at 11:47

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